Rise Above This
by iHeartYou13
Summary: Kate goes to dinner with her dad only to be introduced to Morgan Cahill, Jim's 'friend' from AA meetings. Morgan needs a favour, so Jim asks Kate to look into Morgan's husband's murder from three years previous. Josh is absent and Castle makes a decision.
1. Meeting Morgan

Greetings readers: this is my first foray into posting Castle fiction, so be kind please and thank you.

Summary: Kate goes to dinner with her dad only to be introduced to Morgan Cahill, Jim's 'friend' from AA meetings. Morgan needs a favour, so Jim asks Kate to look into Morgan's husband's murder from three years previous. Meanwhile, Josh is in South America and Castle decides to make a serious play for Kate.

Updates will come as fast as I can churn them out, I am a college student in a challenging course, but I do tend to shirk responsibility to write :)

Enjoy -

* * *

"Another case closed, Detective, what ever shall we do to celebrate?" Castle dropped dramatically into his chair next to Kate's desk and watched her as she signed the final piece of paperwork.

Kate smirked and turned to face him. "Definitely not what you're thinking about Castle,"

Castle clutched his shirt over his heart. "Why Detective, my mind was nowhere near the gutter, but yours seems to be," he grinned at the end of his sentence and Kate shook her head.

"Only because you always go there Castle. I'm going to meet my dad for dinner." she stood and stretched a little, reached for her jacket. Castle jumped up and snatched it from her hands, holding it open before she could yell at him.

Kate smiled and rolled her eyes before stepping into it and pulling it closed. She grabbed her bag as Castle pulled on his own jacket. "Can I come with you?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

"No, Castle, go home. Cook with Alexis or run lines with Martha," Kate laughed. He followed her to the elevator.

"Oh, come on, please? I haven't met your dear old dad yet! He'd love me, you know he would."

She pressed the button for the elevator and turned to face him. "Oh really. And why do you think he'd like you so much?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Way too many reasons to list now on such short notice. Mostly because I'm charming. I always got along with my girlfriend's fathers," he said proudly as the doors dinged open.

Kate stepped inside and bit her lip as Castle got on too. "Yeah, except I'm not your girlfriend," she pointed out. Since the case with Agent Fallon, (being exposed to radiation, almost frozen and then being a half second from being blown up), Kate was suddenly acutely aware of Castle's interest in her.

Esposito had been right all that time ago, when the writer had invited her to the Hampton's, but she wasn't ready to take him seriously then. She was beginning to think she could now. Except he wouldn't actually say anything about the subject.

Which was frustrating.

_Not my girlfriend? Don't remind me_, he thought to himself. On the outside, he put on a little smirk. "That just means I'll get along with him even better,"

She shook her head and chuckled. The doors opened on the ground floor and while Castle went left to the parking garage, she went to go right out the front doors.

"Oh, not driving?" Castle asked, one hand on the door handle to the garage.

"Nope, cab. See you tomorrow Castle," and she was out the doors before he could go after her.

"Until tomorrow, Kate." he said under his breath before turning away.

* * *

Kate walked into the diner a few blocks from her apartment an hour later, eyes already searching for her dad. Spotting him in a corner booth at the other end of the restaurant, she grinned and made her way towards him.

He stood with a grin of his own and opened her arms for her to fold into easily. They hugged warmly and tightly, like always.

"Hey, daddy," she greeted quietly from his shoulder. She felt him rub her back slowly and a chuckle rumbled in his chest.

"Hi Katie,"

They pulled back and Jim slid back to his seat on one side of the table and Kate sat on the other side. A waitress came by and dropped a couple of napkins on the tabletop before placing two glasses of water down as well.

When she moved off, Jim spoke. "So, how was work?"

Kate smirked. "You really want to hear about it?" She'd heard enough remarks from her father over the years about her being a cop.

Jim chuckled and shook his head. "Well, while I do fear for your life on a daily, possibly hourly, basis you seem to be all in one piece in front of me today."

She grinned wide and looked at her glass before looking up at him again. "It was good. Just closed a case; a woman killed her step-sister over a bottle of perfume."

Jim pulled a face. "Perfume?"

Kate shook her head, sad smile still in place. "From the corner store. The price sticker was still on it,"

"Was it at least expensive?"

"$7.98,"

"Damn," Jim shook his head now.

Kate just took in his face, smile widening. "You look different. Good. What's new with you?" The lines that were permanent around his mouth and eyes looked different, lighter, more like laugh lines than grief signs.

"Well, I'm good, Katie, really good." he said with a smile.

Kate raised an eyebrow, "That's great, Dad." He was hiding something from her. She got her inability to lie to people she cared about from him.

She watched as his eyes flicked over her shoulder and then back to her face. "Actually, there's something I want to tell you,"

Kate would have been concerned, her mind immediately going to the scary thought that he was drinking again, but his face was too happy. "What?"

"Jim," a woman's voice came from next to Kate's shoulder. She turned as her father stood and was met with an older woman, slightly shorter than her father, with greying brunette hair and bright green eyes. She had a nervous smile on her face.

"Katie, this is Morgan Cahill," Kate just looked up at the woman, Morgan, with her mouth hanging open. "Morgan, this is my daughter Katie."

"Katie, it's nice to meet you." Morgan outstretched a small hand with a few wrinkles. Her nails were painted a light pink.

"Kate," Kate said automatically, it was a reflex; only her parents called her Katie. But she did manage to shake the woman's hand with a small smile.

"Kate, then. I've heard so much about you," Jim and Morgan sat opposite Kate now and watched her expectantly.

"I've, uh, heard nothing about you," Kate returned with wide eyes. She hoped this wasn't what she thought it was.

"I met Morgan at a meeting and-,"

Kate cut her dad off. "At a meeting? Dad, are you-,"

"No, no, no." Jim waved her off. He saw the frown on her face and took one of her hands in his and smoothed his thumb over her skin. "_No_, Katherine, I promise. I went, just for the support. It was months ago. I met Morgan at a meeting."

Kate's eyes moved to Morgan's face. The other woman was watching her dad speak with a small smile on her face. Kate didn't like it.

"She was sharing her story and I talked to her after and, well, we just started having coffee after meetings. Talking about," Kate looked back at Jim as he stopped and swallowed. "About our stories."

Kate frowned deeper and looked down at their clasped hands. "How long?"

Jim frowned a little now. "How long, what?"

"Coffee?" she tried to make it sounds light, but there was something bubbling in her chest and making it challenging to breathe.

"About eight months now, right Morgan?"

Morgan finally spoke again. "Your father is wonderful to talk to, such good company. Since my husband passed, well..."

Kate couldn't look at her, but forced herself to at least look at the woman's clenched hands on the table top.

"He's a good man," Morgan finally said.

"Yeah, he's the best." Kate managed. Her throat felt like it was closing up. Were they dating?

She couldn't ask the question. Jim answered it for her.

"We've been, seeing each other, Katie. Lunches on the weekend, dinner once or twice," Jim could see his daughter struggling with this. She wouldn't look them in the eye, one of her biggest tells, and she was biting her lip.

Since becoming sober, Jim had been lonely. When he finally accepted that Johanna wasn't coming back, his sponsor had told him to try and make new friends. Maybe get a dog or a fish or something. Alan, his sponsor, had told him that Johanna would want him to be happy.

"Oh," was all that came out.

"Actually, I, well we, wanted to ask you a favor." Jim said after an awkward moment. "Morgan's husband, Charlie; the police said it was random, robbery gone wrong in a convenience store."

Kate just nodded along, frowning a little.

"We were wondering if you could make sure? Just look over the case quickly, see if anything was missed, like with," he swallowed again. "With Johanna."

Kate licked her lips and pulled her hand back from her dad's before smoothing a hand over her forehead. "I can't just, go over another case dad. I have my own to do."

"It was handled by the 12th precinct, the file should still be there. She needs the closure, Katie. Just like we did." Kate's eyes snapped to his now, a wary look on her face.

"I can't, dad, I can't just start looking into other cases." Kate said, trying to make him understand.

"But-," Jim was cut off by Kate's cell phone ringing.

She dove into her bag for it, thanking whoever it was for the distraction.

"Beckett," she answered. She felt slightly guilty for hoping it was a body.

"_Beckett, how goes dinner with dad?_"

"Castle?"

"_I'm wondering if you would reconsider your previous answer to my question of coming with you_,"

"I'm already here Castle," Kate bit out, glancing up at her dad and Morgan. She stood and motioned outside and fled the table.

"_Well, guy could hope, right?_"

"Actually, Castle, do you think you could do me a favor?"

* * *

"I don't think she likes me," Morgan told Jim as they watched Kate through the glass.

"Of course she likes you, Katie likes everyone until they give her a reason not to." Jim said, even if he was thinking the same thing as Morgan. He took a sip of water and pulled a smile to face her.

"Dating her father isn't reason enough?" Morgan raised an eyebrow with a small smile.

"She just needs time to take it in, always has. Katie's a thinker. She'll adjust."

Kate came back in and grabbed her jacket and bag. "I have to go, Castle called and something came up," she was being purposefully vague; her father always knew when she was lying and she could see him checking her over now.

It wasn't a complete lie; Castle had called, and she'd taken the call and asked for a favor and so something had come up. She should be fine.

"Alright, Katie, you be careful you hear me?" Jim was satisfied that Kate was telling the truth and stood to give her a hug goodbye. "I love you, okay?"

Kate smiled into his shoulder, despite the weird feelings from earlier. "I love you too. I'll call you later,"

"It was nice to meet you Kate," Morgan said, not getting up. Kate smiled a little and nodded.

"You too Morgan,"

And then she was gone.

She got a few blocks down and ducked into a bookstore to wait for Castle and within 20 minutes he was coming in the front door, setting the bell ringing.

"What's wrong?" he asked right away.

"Nothing," it was easier to lie to Castle. "Can we just get out of here?"

Castle frowned a little but held out an arm to her. "Of course, milady, where shall we go."

Kate smiled and looped her arm through his as they left he bookstore and climbed into his car.

"Remy's? I didn't get a chance to eat," she admitted. Castle turned the car on and turned the music up.

"To Remy's," he said with a grin before pulling out into traffic.

* * *

That night, after Castle had dropped her off with a smile and a kiss to the back of her hand, Kate fell into bed with her mind spinning.

Who the hell was Morgan Cahill, and why hadn't her dad mentioned her before now? He'd obviously been talking about her to the woman.

Why did Morgan want her to look into her husband's murder? Had her dad told her about her mom's case? About how she'd had to shoot the killer?

Why was Castle suddenly so insistent on being a nice guy? And not even his regular, charming self; he hadn't made one lewd joke at Remy's, had let her pay her portion of the check, didn't make any innuendos and made her laugh. He only asked once what had happened at dinner and when she didn't want to talk, he dropped it.

He looked at her seriously, he seemed to touch her more, he listened and didn't tease her so caustically. Was he making a play for her? Wasn't he still with Gina?

What about Josh?

When she finally slid into sleep some two hours later, it was deep and dreamless.

* * *

The next morning, Kate arrived at the precinct early to find Esposito and Ryan already there and working on the paperwork they'd neglected to do the night before. "Morning, Boss," they chorused.

She grinned at them. She secretly thoroughly enjoyed it when they did that. "Hey guys,"

She settled at her desk when her phone buzzed with a new text. When she checked it, she found a message from her dad. Kate shook her head with a small smile at her dad texting before reading the short message.

_hope you're safe. last night was fun. reply so i don't have a heart attack. love you._

Kate responded with a smile and set her phone down.

_safe. don't have a heart attack. love you too._

"Good morning detective," Castle handed her the usual cup of coffee, which she took and sipped with two hands and savored, and dropped into his chair. "What's on the agenda today?"

"Not much yet, why, Castle are you bored?" She teased him, sitting back in her chair. Kate held out her hand and Castle looked down at it before pulling the bag holding her bear claw out from under his jacket.

"Never bored when you're around Beckett, you should know that by now." he smiled at her and Kate felt a little zing go straight to her stomach. Oh no.

"We don't have a case, just processing paperwork and cold cases until lunch." she answered, taking another sip of her coffee to try and hide the look on her face.

"_Oh_, what's happening at lunch?" he leaned in close as if sharing a secret and Kate forced herself not to react to his cologne. What the hell?

"We're going to do my dad a favor."

* * *

"This is the only Charles Cahill from three years ago, not worked by us personally, but the case went cold here." Esposito handed Kate the thin file with '_Cahill, Charles_' written on it.

She flipped it open to find a picture of Charles clipped to the jacket. He was dark skinned, shaved head, with warm brown eyes and a wide smile. There was a gap between his front teeth. He had dark freckles over his nose and cheeks. His slight stubble had flecks of grey.

Kate felt a clench in her gut. She pushed the feeling down and shifted as Castle came over to read over her shoulder.

"Says he was shot in a convenience store in a robbery three years ago. Small calibre to the chest, bled out in minutes." Castle said. He could feel Kate already becoming involved in this, whatever it was, she was stiffening, touching the photo of Charles Cahill quickly before flipping through the pages.

"There's a surveillance video of the robbery, but the notes say the shooter was wearing a mask. Ryan?" Kate looked up. It was lunch, so they were all eating (Castle bought Chinese and forced Kate to take a break), but Ryan put down his carton and saluted with a smirk before going to find it.

"We thinking this was done dirty?" Esposito asked from his seat at the table in the break room.

Kate considered the question a moment before shaking her head. "I don't know. We'll see. It's a favor for someone."

Esposito looked at Castle who shrugged and shook his head. "Favor for who?" the other detective asked.

"My dad," Kate said. There was a slight warning tone to her voice and Esposito backed down with a look thrown to Castle.

Castle nodded once and motioned out the door. The other man made an excuse and left, saying he was going to help Ryan.

"Do you think he's actually going to help Ryan or going to see Lanie?" Kate asked when the door had shut. She was smirking into her Chinese with the file spread out in front of her. The chopsticks froze halfway to her mouth when Castle spoke next.

"What's the favor?" he asked quietly and curiously. He saw her hesitate, bite her lip. She set the container down and frowned at the file.

Castle pulled his chair closer and rested his hand on the table right next to hers, as close as he could get without touching it, and spoke as sincerely as he could muster.

"You know you can tell me, right? I promise I can be an adult sometimes, honest." He felt relief as Kate smiled a little at the last part and folded his fingers under his hand to resist reaching out to touch her.

"My dad's," she hesitated before answering with a carefully chosen word, "_friend_, asked for the favor. They want to make sure this was done right."

Castle nodded and frowned a little, examining Kate. Her shoulders were set and tense, despite the light mood she tried to show for Ryan and Esposito. There were slight shadows under her eyes, like she hadn't slept very well and she wouldn't quite meet his eyes.

When he didn't say anything and she looked up in surprise, something clicked into place for him. The look in her eyes was one he'd seen only once before and it was on Alexis' friend Sabrina.

Sabrina's parents had been divorced for a couple of months when she came over to their place, crying to Alexis, confused and a little hurt because her father had just introduced her to his new girlfriend. She'd run off from her dinner, had one of their friends pick her up, and they'd gone up to Alexis' room and talked for hours.

That look, the almost-crying, confused and hurt look, that Sabrina had been wearing was just barely beginning to show on Kate Beckett's face.

"Is this friend a woman?" he asked gently. He watched her fingers clench the carton and hoped desperately this wouldn't turn out like him prying into her mother's case had.

Kate took in sharp breath. How the hell did he always _know_? What, did he have mind reading abilities or something? "No," she lied, forcibly picking up her chopsticks again and spearing a piece of ginger chicken.

"Liar," he whispered. Ryan came back in at that moment and slid the CD across the table to Beckett before picking up his Chinese food again.

"So the tape itself has no sound, but according to the evidence guys, this is the original." he said, looking back and forth between the two with a slight frown. "You two okay?"

"Fine. Let's watch that tape." Kate rose and left her food to leave the break room for her desk and computer. Castle followed closely behind her and Ryan did as well with his food.

She slid the disk into the drive and waited for it to load. "So did Esposito help you out?" Kate teased, trying to get back some balance after Castle tipped her off of it.

Ryan frowned. "No, why?" Castle raised his eyebrows at him.

"Ah, Lanie? Dude, I feel bad, we should just tell them how totally _not_ stealthy they're being." Ryan commented with a head shake. He lifted noodles into his mouth.

Kate opened the video and the three leaned in to watch.

The picture was black and white and didn't have any sound, but was clear. Charles Cahill entered the store and wandered the back shelves before grabbing a bottle of ginger ale and a pack of peanut butter cups. By the time he'd reached the counter and pulled his wallet out, a man had come in behind him.

The man's face was turned away from the camera and then he'd pulled a black mask over it, whipping out a gun and pointing at the cashier, a young woman, and Charles Cahill. The man was screaming and Cahill had his hands in the air, motioning for him to put the gun down.

The man used his gun to point away from the cash and Cahill went, leaving his wallet. The woman behind the cash was crying, she looked about 16, and opening the register. The man pointed the gun at her as she did it and shoved a bag in her face. She piled the cash it and backed against the wall of cigarettes behind her.

"Look, he's going to do something," Castle commented, pointing at Cahill. He was right. Cahill was slowly bringing his hands down. The man was moving to climb over the counter and the woman was clutching the top of her shirt closed.

Just as the man lowered the gun to hop the counter, Cahill charged him, knocking him and a stand of magazines over in the process. There was short scuffle before the man and Cahill jerked, the girl visibly flinching too, before Cahill was rolled off the man and he was running.

A dark puddle formed under Cahill and the girl called 911.

"Okay, looked random to me; why does your-," Kate looked up sharply at Castle and he stopped himself before rethinking his words. "Why does your dad think this deserves a second look?"

Kate bit her lip before answering. "I don't know. Let's read the witness statement,"

* * *

By the end of their lunch break, they'd gone through everything; the video, the autopsy and CSU reports, statements and final paperwork. Kate was convinced it was a random robbery, unfortunate but typical in New York, and even Castle didn't have any wild theories about this one.

Ryan and Esposito were due in court to testify that afternoon, so when they left, Castle took the opportunity to tell Kate he was going for coffee and instead slip down to see Lanie.

"Hey, writer boy, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Lanie was autopsying an older man with white hair, deep wrinkles and yellow fingernails and teeth. Castle bet he died of lung cancer from smoking.

"Do I need a reason to come down and see my favourite medical examiner?" he said with a charming smile.

"Only when it's got something to do with your favourite medical examiner's best friend who happens to be a homicide detective, who you've also got the hots for," Lanie replied with a wide smile and a raised eyebrow.

Castle shook his head with a smile and leaned against the doorframe. "Seriously though, what do you know about Jim Beckett?"

Lanie looked up now, face serious. "Kate's dad? Castle, do you remember the last time you poked around Kate's family?"

Castle nodded seriously, "I do, but this isn't about him being killed, quite the opposite. Has she told you if he's, well, dating anyone?"

Lanie frowned and thought a little. "Um, no. But do you really expect her to tell us that?"

Castle stood up. "No, but still, maybe in passing. Anything this morning or late last night?"

She shook her head, curls bouncing now. "Nope, why, is she acting off?"

"She's doing a favour for a friend of her dad's. When I asked if it was a woman, she kind of, I don't know. It was weird."

Lanie shifted her weight to one hip and raised her eyebrows. "Best selling novelist and that's the description I get? Damn."

Castle sighed and came a little further into the room. "I'm serious, I want to help her out with this."

"You know, she's got a boyfriend, a gorgeous doctor boyfriend, who can help her through this, whatever it is." Lanie said with a still-raised eyebrow.

Castle's face tightened a little at that and Lanie felt realization wash over her. "You're gonna do it, aren't you?"

Castle hesitated at Lanie's excited tone. "Do what?"

"Make an honest play for my girl; the whole tell her how you feel without any innuendos or jokes deal. Without joking or making light of it so she knows you're serious. You are, aren't you?" she looked way too happy now and Castle raised his hands.

"I just wanted to know."

Lanie smirked at him. "Mmhm." she hummed.

Castle back from the room. "Thanks Lanie!"

"Keep me posted!" she called after him.

She turned back to Ted Moore on her table and grinned. "Finally, that man gets some sense."

* * *

Soooo, what'd you think? Should I continue?

Also, I can't remember if Castle has met Beckett's dad, but I don't think he has. Either way, for this story, he hasn't.

If they seem a little OOC, you can tell me, ahaha I promise (I need to know these things)

Reviews are love!

:)


	2. Body Drop

WOW you guys are crazy amazing. My e-mail exploded with alerts and reviews and it really made my day, so THANKS for the support!

I am aware of my problem with tenses, pointing them out only makes me try to fix them, so go right ahead :)

This is my first real shot at a case fic, so continuity is obviously important. Again, anything you catch that I may not have, please feel free to point it out :)

Alright, I'm done,

Enjoy -

* * *

"Where's the coffee?"

Castle slowed down and his eyes widened. "What?"

"The coffee, Castle, you went to get coffee." Kate sat back in her chair and gave him an amusing and curious look.

He looked around the precinct and grasped at straws. He hadn't actually gone to get coffee after his talk with Lanie. "Uh, they were, hm, closed. Shop was closed."

Kate raised an eyebrow. She didn't really care that he had disappeared, she was used to his strange ways by now, but it was funny as hell to see him squirm like he was at this moment.

"Really? At," she checked her watch. "two in the afternoon?" She looked back up at his wide eyes and forced herself not to grin.

"Well, yeah, it was all closed up and dark and the sign said closed." he regained his cocky attitude and Kate just smirked. "You want to arrest me again for breaking and entering, didn't think you wanted to play with your handcuffs with me." he wiggled his eyebrows but she didn't crack.

"So, there's only one coffee place in New York? There are at least half a dozen between here and the block down the street. All of them closed too, Castle?" she said slyly.

"Yes?" the answer was more of a question and Kate lost her battle with herself and grinned.

"Okay," she said and turned back to the cold case in front of her. She waited a beat and then, "How was your talk with Lanie?"

Castle shook his head and folded into his chair. "You're mean," he accused her.

"You started it."

"How did you know?" he asked incredulously.

"You do realize Lanie is my best friend? Of course she's going to tell me when you come to see her without me. What did you talk about?"

"What are you working on?" he changed the subject, silently thanking Lanie for not spilling the beans. He smiled when Kate smirked into her paperwork.

"Financial records for Charles and Morgan Cahill. Montgomery said until we catch a case, we can work on this." Kate slid a thin pile of paper towards Castle and kept flipping through her own little stack.

"Looks fairly normal," Castle commented, sifting through his sheets. "No obscenely large amounts of money, no debts outstanding, nothing suspicious coming in or out,"

Kate made an agreement sound in her throat and continued reading.

Castle whistled. "Wait a minute, do they have kids?"

Kate looked up and searched through her desk for a sheet of paper. "Yeah, twin girls. Why?"

Castle raised an eyebrow at his paper. "Looks like they're in college now; jeez, look how expensive this is!" Kate shook her head with a small smile and went back to work. She had to admit, to herself only of course, that she did smile a lot more when he was around.

"Why does this woman think we need to look over this case again?" Castle asked after a few minutes of silence.

Kate sighed. "She thinks maybe it wasn't so random. Or something. I don't know."

Castle's ears perked up at this. He put down his pile and leaned over a bit. "You don't know? Well, didn't you ask her?"

Kate wouldn't look at him. "Not exactly,"

"Detective Kate Beckett didn't ask any questions," Castle deadpanned, looking over her face. It was starting to tighten up and close off.

"No,"

"Why not?"

"Castle,"

"What, was she rude about it?"

"No,"

"Angry, did she threaten you? Force you into it?"

"Stop it,"

"We're looking over this case because she's the killer looking for glory? Oh, that would be a great story,"

"_Castle_," this time it was firm and she turned to look at him with an angry face. "Stop talking now."

Seeing she'd obviously had enough, he mimed zipping his lips and went back to the last of his stack. The air between them was tense and Kate's head bent over her work again, the only sound from either of them being the shuffling of pages.

"Okay, don't bite my head off," Castle said quickly 20 minutes later. "But these guys look clean."

Kate sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I know. Same with the autopsy. And the lead investigator, Frank Hobbes, retired last year with commendations. He was a good cop."

"Should we talk to him?" Castle asked.

Kate looked down at her watch. "Day's not over yet."

"Captain said you could work this until you got a call, right? Just take your phone,"

She bit her lip and considered. "Alright,"

Within an hour they were sitting with retired Detective Frank Hobbes in a diner down the street from the precinct with the file spread out between them.

"Thanks for coming Detective," Kate said, sliding the autopsy report towards him.

"Not a problem, this was one of my last cases," Frank Hobbes was older, with grey hair and wrinkled hands and laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. He was fit, though, with solid body mass that fit just barely into the booth, but he had kind brown eyes.

"Worked this and one more before taking desk jobs for the last year, retired just over a year ago now," he said, picking up the report.

"What do you remember about the case?" Castle asked from his spot next to Kate.

"I remember it was pretty open and shut, except that we never caught the bastard. Charles Cahill was in the convenience store with the cashier, a Samantha Robbins I think, when the guy came in, pulled a gun and told Robbins to empty the register. Cahill stood out of the way, Robbins emptied the register, and the guy went to go over the counter for something. Cahill rushed him and the guy fired then ran."

"CSU report says there was no trace evidence, no fingerprints or anything." Kate said.

"I take it you watched the surveillance tape?" both nodded. "The guy wore gloves, not uncommon in a robbery, and his skin was fully covered, so even in the scuffle between him and Cahill, there was nothing to scratch. The mask covered his head so if he wasn't bald, any hair was trapped by the fabric."

"So it was thought out? The guy was a pro?" Castle asked. Kate looked over at him and he shrugged.

"Nah, more like lucky. This guy was nervous or he wouldn't have let Cahill tackle him. Probably some dumb kid who's seen too many movies." Hobbes waved off. "He was no pro,"

"What about Cahill's wallet?" Kate asked suddenly. Hobbes frowned.

"What wallet?"

"Cahill left his wallet on the counter by the register when the guy started waving the gun around. Why didn't the kid take it?" Castle seemed to read Kate's mind.

"Well, credit cards can be traced. He probably was thinking he didn't want to get caught with a stolen credit card from the guy he just pointed a gun at," Hobbes answered, watching the two across from him.

"But you said he wasn't a pro," Castle said back.

"And if he wasn't a pro, he wouldn't have thought that far ahead, he would have just grabbed it when the opportunity presented itself," Kate cut in on Castle's sentence.

"And we would have caught him using the cards somewhere and this really would have been open and closed but he left it because-,"

"Because he either knew they could be traced or he saw Cahill's ID and figured out who he was."

"Do you two do this often?" Hobbes asked in amusement.

"What did Cahill do for a living?" Kate asked, ignoring Hobbes' comment.

"He worked at the airport, shipping and receiving. He checked incoming packages before passing them along to security."

"Smuggling ring? Drugs, people, exotic animals, the possibilities are endless," Castle said, sounding a little too excited.

Kate was still looking at Hobbes. "Did anyone interview the staff at the airport? Was he a good employee, ever get into any trouble?"

"We checked; he was a model employee. He caught drugs being smuggled in, a couple fruits and vegetables, illegal merchandise a couple times, even a little puppy once. He was good at his job. Coworkers loved him." Hobbes said, leaning back in the booth.

"Look, this was just a convenience store robbery; guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid for it. It sucks, but there it is." he finished.

Kate's cell phone buzzed in her pocket and she answered it while Castle gathered up the pages of the file. "Beckett," she listened as Esposito talked on the other end of the line. "Got it, 20 minutes,"

"Body?" Castle said.

"Body. Thanks for meeting us Detective Hobbes." Kate held out her hand to shake Hobbes' and he stood at the same time.

"Please, I'm retired, it's Frank."

"Well it was nice to meet you Frank," Castle shook the man's hand as well, and they left the diner and headed to the crime scene.

* * *

It was getting close to 4:30 by the time Kate pulled up to the curb of the crime scene, Castle spinning wild theories about the masked thief from the convenience store the whole way.

The scene was between two buildings, one a night club and the other a small casino, on the way out of the city towards the suburbs. The alley itself was wider than normal, with two dumpsters on each wall for the establishments. There were smaller garbage cans and the back opened up onto a parallel street with an empty lot.

"Alright," Kate said as she and Castle came upon Lanie, Ryan and Esposito around the victim, uniforms standing around to keep bystanders from getting too close. "What've we got?"

The victim was covered by a sheet, but there was a dried pool of blood collected off to one side, opposite to where Lanie knelt, and they could see a hand peeking from beneath the covering.

The fingernails were painted emerald green.

"Woman, between 18 and 25 is my guess, blunt force trauma to the back of the skull and two shots to the chest. There are some older bruises on her upper arms too," Lanie said, pulling the sheet back so Kate could see the woman's face.

"Cause of death?"

"You know the drill honey, gotta get her back to the morgue first," Lanie said before moving to recover the woman.

Kate's hand on her arm shoulder stopped her. The detective kneeled down and tilted her head to one side.

"Castle, does she look familiar to you?"

Castle came closer and peered over Kate's shoulder. "A little,"

Lanie looked at the two of them and raised her eyebrows. "You two communing with the dead now?"

Kate shook her head and stood back up, forcing Castle to stumble away from her. "Ryan, any luck with a wallet?"

Ryan held up a cell phone with a cracked screen in a plastic baggie. "This is all we found so far. There's an old pipe towards the other end of the alley that Esposito is bagging and CSU is going over the area now."

"No purse?"

"Not yet, no witnesses either. We talked to the club owner and the casino manager and they say the alley between the two is dark, no streetlights. Even if the employees taking out the garbage had stayed out long enough, they wouldn't be able to see anything,"

"Alright, let's get her back to the morgue and round up the usual suspects. Let's see if we can fingerprint her and run her through the system, canvas the surrounding buildings and have CSU check the dumpsters for a wallet or ID. When we get back to the precinct, see if tech can get into that cell phone." Kate said.

* * *

Castle stayed quiet on the car ride back. He could feel Kate tensing up and he knew this case had the potential to be a hard one. They'd gotten back to the precinct after talking to the security guards at both the club and casino, the security at the building across from the alley (a small law firm) and checking out the empty lot at the other end of the alley.

It was well past 7 and they were all hungry and Esposito and Ryan were more than a little dirty after dumpster diving with CSU. And it was all for nothing.

Lanie had been able to have more luck and called Kate and Castle down to the morgue.

"What's up Lanie?" Kate greeted, pushing through the doors with Castle close on her heels.

"Well, I've narrowed down time of death to between 6pm and midnight last night. Cause was definitely the GSWs; one was a through and through to the left lung and the other nicked her heart. Death occurred within minutes."

"So the bullet that hit her heart you've got and there's one still in that alley?" Kate asked. She tried to ignore the fact that this young woman was shot while she was going to dinner with her father.

Lanie held up a pair of pliers with a squashed looking bullet clenched between the tips. ".45 caliber. Not too close, but not a long shot either."

"What about the blunt force trauma?" Kate asked.

"The pipe the boys brought back seems to be consistent and there is debris in the wound on the back of her head. I'm thinking it's rust from the pipes, but we'll have to wait for the test results."

"Was the blow enough to knock her out?" Castle asked. He really hoped it was. This girl wasn't much older than Alexis.

"Unfortunately no, it would have disoriented her, made her dizzy and unable to fight back. She would have had trouble walking or running away from the attacker. If the bullets didn't kill her, the bleeding in her brain would have," Lanie said sadly, looking down at the victim.

"Any hits on her prints yet?" Kate asked. She felt something coiling in her stomach.

"Not yet, but there might be something in the morning."

"Thanks Lanie, anything else?"

"Nothing under her fingernails or in her mouth, but there was a piece of paper in her pocket and a movie stub in her back pocket." Lanie held out a baggie with the papers inside.

The piece of paper had handwritten writing on it. _10pm, UES loc. $50_

The ticket stub was for a 6:15 movie showing of '_Wizard of Oz_' at a revival theatre.

"Thanks," Kate said and handed the baggie back. She and Castle left the morgue and headed for the elevator.

"So, what are we thinking?" he asked as they stepped inside.

Kate sighed and leaned back against the wall of the elevator. Her dad was dating, his friend's (she decided to refuse to say_ girlfriend_) husband's murder may not be as cut and dry as they thought and now this girl's murder. Not to mention, for some reason she was familiar to her and Castle.

"I'm thinking this is going to be a long case," she finally settled on.

Castle looked over at her carefully and reached out a hand to warmly envelop hers. She didn't move her hand away and she didn't look at him. He held his breath as the doors slid closed and they started to move.

He released a silent sigh of relief when her soft fingers closed slowly around his and squeezed gently. He grinned and didn't say a word.

When the doors slid open to the bullpen again, Kate dropped his hand and walked out, face burning and a grin fighting it's way to her face. He was being serious about this!

She had a boyfriend. Josh. Josh. Motorcycle and doctor and wonderful Josh. But Josh was in South America. He was always working or out with friends or on call or in a different country.

Castle was always here.

To be fair, Josh was doing good work helping others and saving lives. And she was busy a lot too, being a cop. And when they were together, he was pretty close to perfect.

Except Castle always made time for her, even just to bug her or send her a stupid text.

Oh _no_.

"So, what's for dinner?" Castle's voice broke through her thoughts as they sat at her desk. She mentally shook herself and looked over at him.

"What?"

"Dinner, it's like 7:30 and I haven't eaten since that Chinese food at lunch." he repeated and continued. She looked distracted.

"Oh, uh, you can head home Castle, I'm going to stay here and go through missing person's reports." Kate turned on her computer as Castle stood. She was surprised he was listening to her until she felt her jacket being lifted off the back of her chair.

"Castle," she sighed and started.

"Nope, no amount of needling or threatening my life and body parts is changing my mind. You are coming over to dinner and you are not going to burn yourself out. Let's go detective, chop chop," he held out her coat.

"Come on Castle, it's still early." Kate tried. But her stomach betrayed her and let out an almighty rumble. She sighed and stood at his satisfied smirk.

"Fine. But if you-,"

"There will be no funny business, Beckett, I promise. Now hurry up, my stomach is starting to eat itself."

Kate turned her computer off again and pushed her chair back. She rolled her eyes when he wiggled her coat around. "Hurry up," he said with a small smile.

She shook her head and stepped into the coat.

* * *

As promised, there had been no funny business and Kate had to admit that she had fun. They'd gotten home in time to enjoy leftovers of Alexis' lasagna and the start of an old black and white movie. Castle had been the perfect gentleman and Kate had sat on one side of Alexis while he had been on the other.

The movie had finished by 11 and Alexis went off to bed, surprising Kate with a small hug goodnight and then Castle had waited with her by the curb for her cab.

She'd fallen asleep with a smile on her face and Josh as far from her thoughts as they could be.

* * *

The next morning there was a call from Jim Beckett waiting on Kate's phone at her desk. She called him back on and tapped her fingers while she waited for him to pick up.

"_Hello?_"

"Hey dad, it's me,"

"_Katie, I'm glad you called. How's Charlie Cahill's case?_"

Kate sighed internally and rubbed a hand across her forehead. "It looks clean dad, we're just going through everything again. It could take a while." There was no way she wanted to tell her father that the robber may have planned the death of Charles Cahill.

"_Alright, just checking in. Morgan was asking on the phone last night._"

Morgan. She didn't want to hear about Morgan. Kate was very aware of the fact she sounded like an obnoxious teenager, but at the moment she couldn't summon the energy to care.

"Well, I'm looking into it."

Jim could tell from his side of the phone that his daughter sounded uncomfortable with Morgan.

"_Okay, so how was your day yesterday? I didn't hear from you after you left dinner,_" he changed the topic and practically felt the relief come through the phone line.

"Oh, just, Castle being Castle I guess. And we caught another case today, a young woman." Kate said. She didn't like talking to her dad about cases because she knew it made him uneasy, her being so close to so much death all the time. But she wasn't about to talk about Morgan.

"_I see. And when do I get to meet this Castle?_"

Kate was a little thrown by that; usually he told her to be careful, be safe, asked her if she really still wanted to be a cop.

"What?"

"_Castle, Rick Castle; your partner. You always talk about him and I've met Javier and Kevin and Lanie, so when do I meet Rick?_"

Kate blinked and frowned a little before answering. "Um, I don't know?" Suddenly he had her feeling like Rick was the boyfriend she was hiding at 17 years old.

"_Really, Katie? You say he's saved your life and he's a good friend and you don't know when I get to meet him?_" she could tell he was teasing her now and a smile slid onto her lips.

"We'll see, maybe after this case," she settled on instead of teasing back. "We're still on for lunch this weekend?"

Twice a week when they had time, that was the new rule they were trying to follow. They decided they didn't see each other enough and they loved each other. Sometimes it was awkward, those few moments they ran out of things to say, but it was getting easier to joke around and just be happy together.

"_Of course, we're looking forward to it_."

Kate heard the little slip. "We?"

She heard her dad sigh. "_Uh, yeah. Morgan thought that dinner the other night was too short, that she made a bad first impression. I was meaning to call and ask if it was alright if she joined us,_"

Kate squeezed her eyes shut. She'd met her dad for lunch on Monday this week, yesterday had been spent in confusion and paperwork and Wednesday wasn't looking so hot anymore either what with the new murder. Would she figure everything out by Saturday?

"Sure, dad, why not." It came out of her mouth before she could stop it. Castle was getting off the elevator down the hall and he met her eyes immediately and smiled. Some of the tension eased off her shoulders.

"_Really? Well alright then, I have to go, but you be careful Katie_."

"I will dad," she said as Castle sat down.

"Hello Mr. Beckett!" Castle called across the small distance. Kate shot him a glare but the effect was lessened by the tiny smile at the corners of her mouth.

"Yes, dad, that was Castle." Kate's cheeks flushed and Castle was more than a little intrigued as to what her father had said.

When she hung up, Castle just watched her with a wide grin. "He likes me already doesn't he?"

Kate shook her head. "Like your ego needs any more stroking," she shot back.

"Ah, so he _does_ like me!"

"I didn't say that!"

"It was implied." Castle said smugly.

"Oh look, mom and dad are bickering!" Ryan's voice floated over from his desk and Esposito chuckled along with his partner.

Kate rolled her eyes and grabbed the coffee Castle held out for her. "Did you guys get anything else from the canvas?"

The boys stood and came across to their sparse murder board and took turns writing as they spoke.

"Witness from across the street at the law firm says he saw a couple people come and go from that alley on Monday night. Mostly teens and party goers, a few in uniform from the casino and one that may just give us a lead." Esposito was writing on the board and Ryan took over next.

"A Jason Reyes says he was working late, around 9:30, when a loud car pulled up across the street. He says its not so unusual, because of the casino and the club, but he usually looks because he's into cars. This one was a muscle car, modified, with bright blue running boards and a green stripe across the back. Two people got out and went into the alley and only one got back in before the car pulled away," Ryan said, holding out the man's contact info to Beckett.

"Okay, so whoever was in that car was with our vic, they got out and went into the alley, he kills her and drives away." Kate summarized, glancing down at the paper. She and Castle came up together and leaned against her desk to see the murder board.

"Which would mean our victim knew her killer. She was in the car with him. Did Jason Reyes say anything about how the two people getting out of the car were acting?" Castle asked from his spot next to Kate.

"No, but he did say that one of them was walking kind of funny, like they were drunk or wearing high heels," Esposito said, looking through his notes.

"So, maybe she was drugged and coerced?" Kate suggested, looking up at their information.

"I can say with 99.9% confidence that the CIA aren't involved in this," Castle said under his breath. Kate heard him and chuckled, nudged him with her elbow. He grinned back at her but sobered when Esposito turned to look at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright, so we have a witness that says a car pulled up and two people got out. They went into the alley and only one got back into the car. The vic was found with blunt force trauma and two shots to the chest. Lanie puts the TOD between 6pm and midnight and Reyes says 9:30, so we're within that window."

"We need a name," Esposito said after a few moments of silence.

As if on cue, Kate's phone rang and it was Lanie. "Let's go Castle,"

Ryan and Esposito went back to the board and running a background check on Jason Reyes while Kate and Castle headed for the elevator and the morgue.

When they entered, Castle was tempted to see if Kate would hold his hand again, but didn't dare try. He held his tongue against the comment about hand-holding he desperately wanted to say.

"Okay Lanie, what've you got?"

"Good morning to you too honey," Lanie teased with a small smile.

Kate rolled her eyes and spoke again. "Good morning Lanie, you look gorgeous today. What've you got?"

Lanie shrugged. "That was better. I've got an ID on your vic here." she handed Kate a file and the detective flipped it open.

In the file there was a picture of their vic without the physical aspects of death in an alley. She was darker skinned with big brown eyes and glasses. She had freckles and dimples and was smiling a little. It was a student ID card from NYU.

The girl's driver's license picture was attached as well and her glasses were gone and her smile was gone and she looked too much like the body in front of her for Kate's taste. It was the name that made her gasp.

* * *

Is it too early to ask who you think the victim is?

Side note, I'm not from New York, I'm not even from the US, so you won't find many street names or anything like that. Hopefully it still makes sense!

Reviews are love!

:)


	3. Paralells

thanks for all the reviews and alerts guys! much appreciated :)

here's the next part, and I wrote this a little differently, so I hope it makes sense.

enjoy -

* * *

"What?" Castle asked immediately.

Kate looked from the file to the woman on the table and back to the file. "Crap," she muttered.

She handed the file to Castle and raised a hand to her forehead. "Lanie are you sure about this? You're sure this is her?"

Lanie was frowning in confusion now, hands on hips. "Yeah, honey, I'm sure this is her. Her prints were in the system for an arrest last year at a protest in midtown."

Castle had found the name now and was frowning. "Oh,"

"Yeah," Kate breathed back.

"Do we think this is some kind of message? 'Cause if it is, I'm putting CIA back on the table," Castle said, but Kate could see the serious look on his face.

"What? Who is this? How the hell do you know her?" Lanie raised her eyebrows and shifted her weight to one hip, crossing her arms.

"So I guess I get to meet your dad after all," Castle offered. Kate shot him a weak smile and raked a hand through her hair.

"Castle's meeting your dad? What's going on?" Lanie tried again. "Hello?"

"Guess so. Thanks Lanie," Kate said distractedly and left the morgue with Castle in tow.

"Kate!" Lanie called after her friend but the elevator was already sliding open down the hall.

"Damn,"

* * *

"_Hello?_"

"Hi dad,"

"_Katie? What's wrong?_"

"Are you with Morgan?"

"_No, but she's coming over for her lunch break. I'm attempting to make soup without burning the house down. Why?_"

"Can you convince her to stay until I get there? I need to talk to her."

"_Katie, you sound...what's happened? Is it her husband's case?_"

"Dad, just, can you try to get her to wait for us?"

"_Yes, Katie, she's pulling in now. What's going on? You're starting to scare me, young lady._"

"I'll be there soon. I love you dad,"

* * *

Castle sat in the passenger seat of Kate's parked car. They were sitting at the curb outside her father's house, his car and what he assumed to be Morgan's car in the driveway. He reached out a hand to touch her fingers. They were cold.

"Beckett?" He said quietly.

Kate sighed and turned her hand over so their palms touched and she could lace their fingers together for the second time in as many days. "Castle,"

"You ready?"

"No. Is it too late to be a magician?" she said, finally meeting his eyes.

He grinned at her and his eyes crinkled a little. She smiled back and took a deep breath before pulling their hands apart and turning off the car. "Let's go."

"This is so not how I imagined meeting your father." he said halfway up the driveway.

"You imagined meeting my father?" she asked and smirked a little when he hesitated.

"The man who raised the great Kate Beckett? Of course I imagined meeting him! Maybe he'll be in my next book; I'll name him John. He can be Nikki's kind uncle-,"

"Please don't put him in your book, Castle, he's more private than I am." Kate said, pulling Castle to a stop just short of the porch step. She was dead serious and he backed down immediately.

"I was kidding, Kate, I won't. I won't put any of your family in the book." he kept his face open as she scrutinized him before she nodded and smiled thinly.

"Thanks Castle,"

"Anytime, now, stop stalling."

Kate sighed and stepped up, pulling out her keys and unlocking the front door. "Dad?" she called out into the small house. The smell of slightly burned soup permeated the air and she couldn't help but smile a little.

"Katie? In the kitchen," Jim called out from the back of the house and Kate headed that way immediately, closely followed by Castle.

Jim met them in the doorway to the kitchen and he and Kate hugged tightly. Castle let them have their moment and only offered his hand when Kate had pulled back and introduced him.

"Dad, this is Rick Castle, Castle this is my dad,"

Castle shook the man's hand and noted the firm handshake. Was Kate's dad sizing him up already? "Mr. Beckett, nice to finally meet you sir."

He expected Jim to tell him to call him by his first name. This was not the case. "Mr. Castle, likewise." Definitely sizing him up.

Morgan emerged from the back part of the kitchen with a bowl of soup. "Kate, Jim was telling me you wanted to talk to me. Did you find something in Charlie's case?"

She looked so hopeful that Kate almost just turned around and left, but Castle's hand on her elbow steadied her nerves. "Actually, your husband's case is still being looked over. I need to talk to you about something else,"

Castle felt the change in her as she prepared herself.

"You should sit. And probably put the bowl of hot liquid down," Castle said when Kate couldn't seem to get the words out. She looked at him and instead of the glare he expected, he got a sad smile.

Morgan immediately sank into a chair and the soup got pushed away. Jim sat next to her with a frown on his face and reached for her hand. Kate ignored this. Just say it, she thought, like ripping off a bandaid...

"Morgan, it's about your daughter,"

* * *

Alaina pulled her car into the driveway, fingers tapping along with the radio on the steering wheel. There were too many cars in her driveway so she parked on the street. Why were there so many cars?

Maybe her mom was having company. She's skipped work before to blow off steam before; granted, she'd never done it on a Wednesday...

Shrugging, she pulled her backpack from the seat next to her onto her lap and cut the engine.

Alaina opened the car door and climbed out, beeping the lock system when she slammed the door behind her. She walked past the cars on the way up the drive and tried to figure out who they belonged to.

She'd only seen the blue car once, and that belonged to Jim, her mom's mystery date. The green one was her mom's. The other one...

When she opened the door, the house felt different. Wrong. Something had shifted. It felt painfully familiar.

"Mom?" she called out. She dropped her bag on the floor by the front door and frowned when only a muffled sob answered her. "Mom, are you crying? Where's Jane?" Jane was her mom's sponsor.

Since her mom had given up alcohol, Jane Tyler had been a regular fixture in their lives. Alaina hadn't heard her mom cry without Jane around.

"Mom?" she moved through the halls and into the kitchen. It was empty and she followed the clink of glasses on a table to the living room in the far corner of the house. "Mom?"

Her mom was sitting on the couch, hunched over with her head in her hands. Mystery-date-Jim was rubbing her back in circles. A man in an expensive looking suit was leaning against the doorframe and a woman with dark hair was sitting in the armchair and turning to face her.

The sunlight glinted off the delicate chain just peeking from under the collar of her shirt.

* * *

"What happened?" Alaina asked carefully.

"Alaina Cahill?"

"_Are you Katherine Beckett?_"

"What's wrong?" Alaina looked at her mother and back at the woman in front of her.

"_What happened?_"

"My name is Detective Kate Beckett,"

"_My name is Detective John Raglan_,"

"What's happening? Is my mom okay?"

"_What's going on? Is mom alright?_"

"Alaina, you should sit down."

"_Katherine, I'd like you to sit, take a breath._"

"No. Where's Elizabeth? She doesn't have class today."

"_Where's my mom? She was supposed to meet us for dinner,_"

"Alaina, your sister was found earlier today downtown."

"_Katherine, your mother was involved in an accident. She didn't make it,_"

* * *

Castle watched with a lump in his throat as Kate broke the news to Alaina Cahill, one of Morgan's twin daughters. Her other daughter, Alaina's twin Elizabeth, was currently on Lanie's slab back at the morgue.

He studied Kate's face as she told Alaina what had happened. Her eyes. They were so sad, so full of understanding and just so sad. They were compassionate too, and determined. Determined to find whatever bastard had done this to this family.

She'd looked the same at her dad's house when she'd told Morgan about Elizabeth.

"It's about your daughter..."

"What? I thought this was about Charlie's case?"

"When was the last time you saw Elizabeth, Morgan?"

Morgan's face was paling and her hands were starting to shake. "We had lunch on campus before I went back to work. I had lunch with you and your father that night. I haven't seen her...since..."

Kate watched her draw the conclusions before she cut in quietly. "Elizabeth was found earlier today, Morgan, downtown. She was murdered."

_Like a bandaid..._

"No. No, you're wrong. She's just out with friends. She stays out with friends sometimes. She's too responsible so I tell her it's okay to go out. She's fine." Morgan's eyes are filling with tears now and Kate feels her heart breaking. Just like it does every time. "Are you sure it's my baby?"

"Yes, her fingerprints were matched in the system," Kate confirmed quietly. Castle's hand at her elbow went to her back and settled there warmly. It kept her from falling to the ground. Her father's hands curled around Morgan's shaking fingers and squeezed.

Crap. Crap crap _crap_.

"Morgan, do you want me to call someone? Your other daughter?" Castle asked when Kate pressed her lips together.

"We should be there, when she gets home. She won't answer her phone when she's driving. Good girl," The tears started sliding down her face now and dripping onto the table top.

"You really shouldn't drive right now, Morgan, we'll take you."

Morgan sniffed and swiped at her cheeks, dislodging Jim's hands, and stood. "No, I'm fine. It's just a few blocks." and she was out the door. Kate and Castle followed, the detective telling the writer to take her keys and drive her.

They'd gotten to the Cahill house and Morgan had collapsed into sobs on the couch with Jim sitting next to her and Castle leaning away from them all. It was a short wait, only 15 minutes, but it had felt longer to everyone in the room.

Alaina turned and walked back through the house to the stairs where she climbed the steps carefully and slowly. She reached the top and turned into her room, closing the door quietly.

Morgan hiccuped and fell back on the couch, staring up at the mantle over the fireplace at a picture of her family.

Jim looked to Kate like she would know what to do but his daughter's eyes were on Rick Castle.

* * *

"Remind me again why I do this?" Kate muttered when she and Castle were back in the car some hours later, driving towards the precinct. It was dark and late and they were both tired.

They'd left Jim with Morgan and Alaina, Kate's father making a sandwiches and some tea for the women to eat. Alaina hadn't made a sound from her room or come back out. Morgan kept sliding into tears and looking a little lost. Kate had tried asking a few questions but had to keep stopping.

Her father had kept interrupting, trying to get her to wait, but they both knew it had to be done now. It had taken a while, but Morgan had answered all Kate's questions.

Kate had left her father with strict instructions to call her if either he or Morgan felt the need for, or managed to find, alcohol. He hadn't argued.

"Because you're extraordinary. You find justice for these victims and their families. You give them closure, the kind you didn't get for so long." Castle said seriously from the passenger seat.

Kate considered this at a red light and then let out a long breath. "Thanks, Castle."

Castle grinned and went for the third hand-holding. This time, Kate watched his hand come up to cover hers on the steering wheel. The red light cast a glow over their skin as he laced their fingers together.

He watched her face as she looked at their hands. They fit together perfectly. He practically held his breath as she considered their new contact.

She was holding his hand. She had a boyfriend. Remember? Motorcycle. Doctor. Wonderful.

Josh. Off saving the world, Josh. No, boyfriend who loved her Josh.

But Castle was here. Always here, always. Holding her hand and making her smile and putting that damn feeling in the pit of her stomach...no. Oh no. But yes. Their hands fit. She could feel it. His hand was warm and smooth, but she could feel a few calluses from hours of gripping pencils and pens.

Josh. Josh, Josh, Josh.

Castle. "Kate? The light's green," he whispered. He didn't let go of her hand. He was thankful the street wasn't busy.

Kate looked up from their hands at his face, his eyes, so open and honest and...Castle.

She smiled a little and lowered their clasped hands to the armrest next to her, eyes turning forward as she eased the car into drive, easily maneuvering with her one hand. The other still firmly in his.

"We should head back to the precinct, add this information," Kate was saying a few moments later. She was ignoring the blush on her cheeks and the grin on Castle's. He was her friend. Not her boyfriend. She'd held hands with friends before.

Boy friends. Ryan and Esposito? Nope. Crap.

"Or, we could get Chinese because it's late and go to sleep and start fresh in the morning," Castle countered thoughtfully. He rushed to clarify when she tried to remove her hand. "Separately, that was not a come on."

Kate left their hands alone and took a breath. "I'll drop you off at home and go back to the precinct. I'll add the information and then go home."

"Ah, but will you eat something in between?"

"Yes,"

Kate pulled up to the curb outside his building, having travelled the last few blocks in silence. So when Castle whispered, "Liar," before getting out of the car and going inside, she was a little confused.

She made sure she picked up an order of Chinese on the way home that night.

* * *

Thursday morning started with rain. A thunderstorm, more like, and the sky was an angry gun-metal grey. Traffic was backed up to who-knew-where and people were dodging the rain and puddles as they ran down sidewalks.

"Morning dad," Alexis bounced down the stairs with her book bag.

Castle turned from the window with a grin. "Morning, sweetie. You're up earlier than usual,"

"Study group at school before our midterms, I'm going to grab a muffin on the way." The teenager crossed quickly to her father and kissed his cheek before heading for the door.

"Alexis," he called just as her hand touched the doorknob.

"Yeah?" Alexis turned around and took the moment to pull her raincoat on.

Castle came through the living room to meet her at the door. He couldn't quite find the words he wanted, so he stalled by reaching into the stand next to the door for an umbrella. Alexis frowned a little in confusion as she took it from him.

"Have a good day," he said finally.

"That's not what you want to ask me. What's wrong?" Alexis leaned against the closed door and waited for a moment.

"Your mother and I are divorced, I was just wondering," he trailed off. Alexis raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah?"

"I, when you met Gina, or any of the others; how did you feel about it?"

Alexis frowned and studied her dad. She ran through the list in her head; this wasn't about a book, wasn't about her and Ashley, wasn't about Gram. That left Kate.

"Is this about Detective Beckett?" she smirked in satisfaction as her dad's eyes snapped to hers.

"Why would you say that?"

"Well? Is it?"

"Maybe,"

Castle scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed. "Her dad, might be seeing someone."

"You mean like dating?"

Castle nodded and waved a hand that told her he wanted her to answer his original question.

"Dad, it's not like I met a ton of women. And I'm okay with it; I mean, they were nice and you liked them. They made you happy. Besides, mom's, well mom is who she is."

"So, you were happy for me, when I dated women aside from your mother." Castle clarified.

Alexis thought for a second. "Yeah, but dad, these are two totally different situations. Beckett's parents didn't split up when she was baby. She grew up with her parents, and then her mom died. I love you, dad, but I never had the whole mom and dad thing, and technically neither did you. It doesn't feel the same."

Castle thought this over and Alexis smiled up at him, set her hands on his shoulders to boost herself up and kissed his cheek again before leaving. "Bye dad!"

The door slammed shut behind her and Castle was left standing there.

"Huh,"

* * *

By the time he got to the precinct, Castle was drenched and dripping. He waddled towards the bullpen where he could see Kate working on something, but was intercepted by Esposito.

"Whoa, fall in a lake on your way in bro?" Esposito grinned.

"You do know there's a thunderstorm going on, right?" Castle said in response, holding his arms out to the side as if that would help.

"We're all dry," Esposito pointed out and Castle sent him a look. "I've got an extra suit in my locker, don't say I never did anything for you," and the two left for the locker rooms.

Kate looked up from the murder board at the sound of squeaking shoes. Turning to the source of the noise, she barely contained her laughter, only letting a smirk and bit of her lip slip free.

"Not a word." Castle warned.

"Yes sir, Captain Tightpants," she teased, looking him up and down.

Esposito was shorter than the writer and obviously a little trimmer; the pants were a few inches too short, a few sizes too tight, and the shirt stretched across his chest and shoulders. Kate ignored how much she seemed to like the view.

"Look who's a funny girl today. What goes around comes around, Beckett."

"Oh I'm pretty sure this is your payback for all the annoyance you've put me through all this time," Kate said with a small smile to take the bite out of the words. It worked and Castle smiled back.

"We'll see. Anything new?"

Kate turned back to the murder board. "Techs got a few numbers off the cell phone and Ryan's grabbing Elizabeth Cahill's phone records now. Hopefully there are a few numbers there we can check out."

"Because she knew the killer,"

"Exactly. Lanie also said her tox screen came back, and Cahill had alcohol in her system. Not enough to be too drunk, but enough that the blow to the head would have completely disoriented her."

"She was buzzed,"

Kate nodded, "Sure,"

"What about Morgan and Alaina? Do we think this had anything to do with Charles Cahill's death?"

Kate sighed and bit her lip, thinking. "I don't know. It would look like it, but Elizabeth was killed the same night my dad asked me to look into it. I hadn't even read the case yet."

"Maybe Morgan talked to someone about getting the police to go over it again?" Castle leaned against her desk next to her and looked over the board.

"Maybe,"

"Hey, we got the phone records for the vic's cell. Nice pants," Ryan came up to them with a few sheets of paper on his hand. Castle shot him a look and reached out to take the papers.

"Jeez, how does one person have eight pages for a cell phone record?" Castle said, flipping through them.

"This is a record of the numbers and dates called and how long the connection lasted. A regular phone bill wouldn't list all that necessarily. Did you shrink your whole wardrobe?" Ryan smirked as Castle pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Thunderstorm! Rain! Of course I got wet."

Ryan pulled a face. "We all got here dry,"

Kate laughed.

* * *

"My eyeballs hurt," Castle complained. They'd been going through the phone records for all of 20 minutes. They were writing down numbers that repeated often on a separate sheet of paper to run down later.

"We're almost done, kitten." Kate said back, not looking up from her current sheet.

His (god-awful) nickname reminded Castle of his conversation with Alexis earlier and contemplated sharing his thoughts with Kate. It was true, Kate had grown up with her parents and lost one while Alexis had only really grown up with him. Of course Alexis would be alright if he dated (as long as they were happy), but Kate...

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Not the one you're thinking of asking," she replied, eyes still on the page. She wrote down a number on her list and moved her finger down the page.

"You don't even know what it is?" He said seriously. This made her look up at him and he waited.

"That tone of voice, and the look on your face, tells me I don't want to hear what you're probably going to say anyway." Kate explained. She went back to the phone records, but wasn't really paying attention to them anymore. She could feel Castle's eyes on her, his serious eyes now, not his funny ones, and it made her stomach feel like it was about to fall to her feet.

"What?" she finally broke. She couldn't take it, him being so silent.

"I had an enlightening conversation with Alexis this morning is all." Castle answered, still in his serious tone.

"And why are you telling me this? She's a smart girl, I'm sure you have intelligent conversation all the time."

"I said enlightening, not intelligent. Although she was pretty brilliant."

"Are you going to spit this out so we can get back to work or am I going to have to start playing 20 questions?"

"You're upset."

"Yeah, I'm upset, you're pissing me off," Kate scrunched up her face in confusion now.

"It doesn't bother Alexis when I date because she didn't grow up with her mother and she knows that while nobody could replace her, anyone would be conceivably better in a domestic environment than Meredith."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "You had an enlightening conversation about your dating life with your daughter?"

"It doesn't bother me, too much anyway, when Mother goes out with other men because I didn't grow up with a father. I didn't miss what I didn't have."

Kate went quiet and Castle knew she understood where this was going. Her face was turning red.

"I don't want to talk about this."

"Kate, I understand. You grew up with both parents and they didn't divorce, your mom died. Your parents would still be together to this day if she'd been alive. And now Morgan is-,"

"Stop. I don't want to talk about this. Why do you never listen to me? Especially about this!" she was getting angrier now.

"Beckett. Kate. I was just, I figured it out this morning and I wanted to tell you so you knew you could talk to me. It's not healthy keeping things bottled up."

"You know, I told you to leave my mom's case alone, and you didn't. I forgave you and it all worked out and I'm possibly even glad for it now. But I do not want to talk about my dad and Morgan in any relationship other than them being friends. Do you understand me?"

Her eyes were dead serious and her face was hard. Castle swallowed thickly and, unlike last time when he'd gone and done it anyway behind her back, he stood his ground.

"No, I don't understand you."

Kate's mouth closed into a straight line and the room was full of tense silence.

She broke it a few moments later by picking up her piece of paper and calmly leaving the room with her list of common numbers, leaving Castle taking deep breaths in his chair.

"Esposito," he heard her call, "Run these numbers and see if any of the owners have a record and see if you and Ryan can figure out what the paper in the vic's pocket means, the one with the letters and dollar amount."

"Got it, where're you going?"

Castle rose from his chair before she could answer and was on time to see Ryan escorting a young woman into an interview room down the hall. Her back was turned so they couldn't tell who it was.

"Who did Ryan just bring in?" Kate asked instead of answering that she was going to get coffee.

Ryan came out and crossed the bullpen to Kate. "Desk sergeant said she was here looking for you, it's Alaina Cahill,"

Kate looked over Ryan's shoulder at the interview room and nodded twice before handing over her list of phone numbers and heading for the room.

This time, Castle didn't follow her.

* * *

Questions, comments, thoughts, concerns? :P

reviews are love!

:)


	4. Q & A: Questions and Accusations

you guys rock! your reviews and alerts are very much appreciated :)

I'm sorry in advance if the interrogations are circular and nonsensical: its the first time writing something like this for me. I tried to make it accurate and to have all the important questions asked. if i missed any, feel free to tell me in a review :)

enjoy -

* * *

Kate took a moment and stood outside the interview room, looking in at Alaina Cahill. The girl was wearing worn blue jeans and grass-stained sneakers. Her jacket was unzipped to reveal a worn out high school sweatshirt. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and her glasses were sliding down her nose. Her eyes were red-rimmed but her face was pale, despite her dark colouring.

Kate pushed the door open and entered. "Alaina, what are you doing here? Are you okay?"

Alaina looked up at Kate's soft voice and pushed her glasses up onto her face. "I'm fine. I know, yesterday, you probably had questions. Detective Hobbes, had questions three years ago. I'm sorry I wouldn't talk yesterday."

The words were quiet and she wasn't crying.

"Well, I appreciate you coming down here. Did you drive, or?" Kate trailed off as she took a seat opposite Alaina. The girl sank back onto the uncomfortable couch and offered a weak smile.

"I took a cab." was all she sad.

Kate saw Alaina's eyes dart away for a split second before meeting her eyes again. "Does your mother know you're here?"

Alaina bit the inside of her cheek before shaking her head.

"Okay,"

"I've been here before. Not this room specifically, not even this floor, but...You can ask your questions,"

Kate considered the girl in front of her for a moment. She was over 18 and could be questioned alone, she hadn't had a chance to talk to her yesterday...

"When was the last time you saw Elizabeth?"

Alaina licked her lips and swallowed. "Sunday night. I had an early class so I was in bed by 11 while Lizzie went out with Lucas. We don't share a room, so I went to class and didn't see her."

Kate nodded a little. "Who's Lucas?"

"Lucas Row, he's Lizzie's boyfriend. He's in the same year as us at school," Alaina explained. She bit the inside of her cheek again.

"When was the last time you saw him?"

Alaina swallowed. "Sunday night, when he came to get Lizzie," she admitted. "I know how it looks, but Lucas loves her! They were talking about getting married when we all graduated."

Kate didn't say anything until Alaina stopped talking. "I have to ask."

"I know," Alaina all but whispered.

"Did you hear from Elizabeth on Monday?"

"No, but I know she was having lunch with mom on campus. I was still in class, but she has an afternoon lecture. They have lunch every now and then. That morning, mom said she was going to pick Lizzie up from home on her lunch break and they'd go out."

Kate watched Alaina's eyes tear up a bit before she pushed them down and licked her lips. Kate pushed down her own little swell of emotion at the little tradition between mother and daughter.

"Would you like some water?" Kate offered. Alain clenched her hands in her lips and shook her head.

"Can we just get this over with? I have to get back,"

Kate nodded. "Sure. Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt your sister? Someone from school or work?"

"Lizzie worked part time in the campus coffee house, but everyone there loves her. There are a couple of people though, from one of her lectures. They're always giving her a hard time."

"A hard time how?" Kate frowned a little and leaned forward slightly.

"Just stupid little things, give her the wrong information when she used to ask a question, tip her books off her desk when they walked past, laughing when she walked in the room to make her think they were talking about her."

"Do you know their names?"

"Yeah, I'll write them down for you. I can't believe they hated her so much they'd...hurt her," Alaina accepted the piece of paper Kate got up to get and the pen as well.

"Alaina," Kate stopped herself. She had a thought, but wasn't sure if she wanted to voice it. If this was any other family member of one of her victims, yes she would still feel for them, but she would ask the question. This family was getting to her.

Damn.

"Alaina, did you and Elizabeth talk a lot when you're in school? Text between classes?"

"Sometimes," Alaina looked up from the list.

"Did you talk to your mother or sister on Monday afternoon? During or after their lunch?"

Alaina stopped writing and looked up at Kate. "Mom didn't hurt her. They were at lunch. They do it all the time."

"Okay, I just had to ask." Kate backed off. Alaina finished the list and slid the paper to Kate.

"Anything else?" Alaina asked.

"No, thank you, I'll call you if there's anything else."

Alaina nodded and stood before walking from the room.

* * *

Castle was sitting in his chair at her desk when she came out of the interview room, but she ignored him, her burning irritation from before coming back to the surface.

He turned at the sound of her heels and stood as she approached. She walked past him to the murder board and wrote in Alaina's timeline of Elizabeth's whereabouts and the last time they talked.

Esposito came up a few moments later with a list of names from Elizabeth's cell phone.

"Yo Beckett, Ryan's running Cahill's credit card and here's the list of names attacked to those numbers."

Kate scanned the list and frowned as she got through the names. "Are you sure about this?"

Esposito was frowning now too. "Yeah, why?"

"I got a list of names from Alaina Cahill of people in school who gave Elizabeth a hard time, three of these names are on both of our lists."

"Which ones?" Castle was suddenly at her shoulder and Kate shifted away from him and picked up the marker for the board.

"There were five names on Alaina's list; Jessica Aaron, Henry Duke, Jenny Green, Claire Bloom and David Wyatt." She wrote the names under the heading 'bullies?' before putting stars next to the four that overlapped with Esposito's list.

"Jessica Aaron, Claire Bloom and David Wyatt overlap. Why would she be talking so much with people who made her life as difficult as possible," Kate questioned, stepping back. She refused to move again she she stepped back and her shoulder touched Castle's.

"Maybe they didn't actually hate each other?" Esposito offered.

"Maybe. Who else is on that list?"

Esposito looked back at his paper, "Alaina Cahill, Morgan Cahill, a few long distance calls we tracked down to grandparents in New Mexico."

"Okay, let's get these kids in here."

* * *

The five college students looked like the stereotypical mean kids, straight out of Gossip Girl. Not that Castle watched Gossip Girl. Kate had banned him from the interrogation room when she'd started and he watched from the observation room now.

He wasn't all that surprised, or concerned, at her anger and had expected it. This time he knew he would hold his ground and help her out until she saw the logic behind his actions.

Unless he was way off base and crossing another line. That part might freak him out a little. He didn't know what he'd do if she managed to cut him off for real; they both knew he didn't need to follow her around for Nikki Heat anymore.

* * *

"Why am I here?" the first girl asked from her chair opposite Kate. Kate stopped herself from rolling her eyes. The girl was platinum blonde with glossy lips, perfect teeth and true blue eyes. She wore a short skirt, despite the afternoon rain, with flats and a fashionable jacket.

Kate would bet money she was freezing.

"Did you know Elizabeth Cahill?"

She watched girl's face harden, just a touch. "No, who is she?"

"She's a girl, about your age, from your school, found dead on Tuesday night." she watched Jessica Aaron's face for any sign of recognition.

Nothing.

"I don't know anything about a girl dying, okay? Do you know how many students go to NYU?"

"Jessica, you and Elizabeth talked and texted. A lot. I've got the phone records that show you two talking at least three times a week."

Kate watched Jessica Aaron's face twitch just a little. "I don't know how, because I don't know her."

"See," Kate switched tracks. "Now I'm confused. I've also heard that you and your friends pushed Elizabeth around; knocked her stuff over, teased her."

"It was just a joke, god can't she take a joke?" Jessica made a face and crossed her arms over her stomach. Her perfect nails were painted pink.

"I thought you didn't know her." Too easy.

"Fine, I know her. Look, I didn't do anything to her. We just, gave her a hard time; it's college. Nobody has it easy."

"She was murdered in an alley between the club After Dark and the Lucky Star Casino on the other side of town on Monday night. Is that hard enough of a time?"

"What? No, no, _no_, I didn't kill her! Look, we gave her a hard time, but I was trying to apologize, you know? I called her all the time to try to get her to talk to me. We used to be best friends, but we got to college. You know how people change, right?" Jessica's face was no longer hard. She was scared now.

"Where were you on Monday night between 6pm and midnight?"

Jessica scrunched up her face in thought before her eyes widened. "I was with my mom, we had dinner at 8 at Rogue and then saw a movie at 10:15. You can call her!" Jessica had no pretense of mean or strong anymore under Beckett's stare.

"I will. Until then, try to remember that not everyone has to have a hard time. Got it?"

* * *

"Look, she was just a girl I used to know, no big deal. I've barely said two words to her all year,"

Castle rolled his eyes at this girl. Claire Bloom was just an airhead. A mean airhead.

"Claire, you called her more than twice a week for the last three months. Tell me, were you just breathing into the phone?" Kate asked with a raised eyebrow.

Claire folded her arms, just as Jessica had, but she met Kate's stare. "What's your point?"

"My point, Claire, is that you're lying to me. And cops don't like liars. Judges and district attorney's and lawyers don't either."

They glared at each other but Kate won and Claire rolled her eyes again.

"Whatever. Look, you can't tell the others, but she was tutoring me Monday mornings. I called her all the time for help with the homework."

"Where were you between 6pm and midnight on Monday?"

"Out with my brother. He flew in from Florida for the week. Call him."

* * *

"Look, the girls are always mean to Lizzie, and Henry goes along with it hoping to get into Jenny's pants. I go along with it because I'm there on a scholarship and not because of money. It's not just the Ivy Leagues and private schools where kids care about that crap."

Kate watched David Wyatt across the table. He was different from the others. Different could go either way.

"So they picked on you too, is that what you're saying?"

"No, they don't know; it was strategy on my part. When I transferred in last semester, I saw what they did to a scholarship case. Kid moved out of state. I thought I could hide in plain sight."

"So you, what, called Elizabeth Cahill every other day to check up on her?" Kate raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Sort of; I met her on the first day and she just, she understood where I was coming from. My dad died when I was 14 and it was like she could tell just by looking at me. We're friends, me and Lizzie. Or, we were. She's really dead?"

Kate could see the genuine tears in the kid's eyes. Third interview of the afternoon and she could feel Castle's eyes on her too, from the observation room.

"She is. Where were you on Monday night between 6pm and midnight?"

"You really think I could kill her? I just told you we were friends!" David looked upset and angry now.

Kate didn't react to it. "You also just told me those other kids were your friends. And they've both lied to me so far too. So tell me the truth, I'll check out your claim, and then hopefully you can get back to class,"

David frowned at her and then sighed, caving. "I was having dinner with my family and then we watched a movie. I helped my sister with her homework after. They were all there. I swear,"

* * *

"Elizabeth who?" Henry Duke was cocky. He was smirking. He was working Kate's last nerve. She hated college kids.

"Cahill. Elizabeth Cahill. Word is you give her a hard time at school."

"Listen, there are a lot of girls at school that would love my undivided attention; if she's saying I did something because I wouldn't go out with her, well, you can let her know I'll get to her eventually," he smirked wider and licked his lips. "I'd love to get to you first though,"

Kate took a silent breath. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Hm? Saw who?"

Kate leaned forward in her chair and hardened her face.

"Elizabeth. Cahill."

Even Castle, safe behind the glass, leaned away from her. Across the table, Henry shrank back a little but tried to keep the facade up.

"Oh, _Cahill_. That _does_ ring a bell." Henry answered in a smarmy tone of voice.

"I don't have time to play any games with you, Henry. Elizabeth Cahill was found murdered. Someone hit her over the head and shot her twice in the chest. Now. Can you talk to me like an adult?"

"I didn't kill anyone," Henry was suddenly serious. Amazing what a murder accusation will do to a college kid with an attitude. "We just, joked around with her. Not my fault she can't take it,"

"She didn't want it, Henry, and I don't blame her. Where were you on Monday night between 6pm and midnight."

Henry swallowed. "With my father. Who also happens to be a lawyer. We were at his office until 11 and then stuck in traffic. He's teaching me to take over the firm."

"Poor man,"

* * *

Jenny Green was tiny. That was Castle's first thought. She was thin and short and had willowy hair and features. Kate would eat her alive.

Castle leaned against the glass and watched as Jenny immediately dropped the mean girl act when Kate slammed the picture of Elizabeth Cahill's body in front of her. She'd even cried.

"I swear, I was with my boyfriend, Dalton Young, we went to dinner and a movie and back to his parents place! They play cheesy board games and we stayed in with them for once!"

* * *

Kate came out rubbing her forehead. It was nearing 5pm and she felt like the day had gone on forever.

"Hey Beckett, got those credit card records for Cahill," Ryan caught up with her before she'd even got to her desk and Castle was right behind him. She ignored Castle and took the file from Ryan.

"Mostly purchases at the mall, a few gas stations, Starbucks; there's nothing too unusual here."

"Anything from Lanie on the murder weapon?"

"She says the pipe in the alley was definitely the cause of the blunt force trauma and the GSW is still a .45 from midrange. She says probably quick succession too, no time for the vic to fall to the ground."

Kate bit her lip as she stared at the murder board. "All the students gave alibi's, think you could start running them down?"

Ryan nodded and took the paper with the names on it to his desk to get started. Esposito came up next.

"Yo, I was going through that surveillance camera of Charles Cahill's shooting again, and the guy doesn't even look down at the wallet; he just gets the money, goes to hop the counter, grapples with Cahill, fires, and runs. He doesn't even seem to know it's there."

"So we're back to square one," Kate said, frustrated.

"Looks like,"

"Okay, help Ryan check those alibis and then we'll see if anything comes up,"

"Got it,"

"Okay, so Elizabeth Cahill was killed Monday night. Alaina didn't see her sister after Sunday night and didn't hear from her after that. Lucas Row is the boyfriend, and he and Elizabeth went out Sunday night."

Castle hadn't heard the part about Lucas Row and Sunday night, but he picked up Kate's thought, hoping to get back in her good graces.

"She must've come home, though, because she met her mother for lunch on Monday afternoon,"

Kate froze at that. "What?"

"What, what?"

"Castle, Morgan Cahill said she had lunch with Elizabeth on Monday afternoon. Alaina said Morgan picked her up from home and drove her to lunch."

"Okay," Castle said, not following.

"So, Claire Bloom said that Elizabeth Cahill tutored her every Monday morning; she would already be at school, or at least, she wouldn't be home. And Cahill had an afternoon lecture; why would she go all the way home in between?"

"Somebody's lying," Castle concluded.

"Alaina said she didn't hear from her sister on Monday, so she wouldn't know if her mom actually picked her up or not. Morgan said she met her on campus for lunch, but Alaina said that this Monday her mother drove home to pick her up and they went_ out_ for lunch."

"So how do we know which one's lying?" Castle asked.

Kate bit her lip. "First we have to see if Claire's alibi checks out. Then we talk to Morgan Cahill."

"Uh, are we going to, or are Ryan and Esposito going to?" Castle asked. He watched her back stiffen.

"Castle,"

"I just mean, she's your dad's, _friend_, and that makes you involved." He said carefully.

Castle came up next to her and slowly reached over to just touch her hand. Her jaw tightened and eventually, after a long moment, relaxed.

"I get what you're doing. And I'll appreciate it later. But right now, I don't want to talk about my dad and Morgan in the same sentence. I don't want to hear about it."

"But you know I'm here for you,"

"Yes,"

"And you know I don't mean to hurt you or piss you off."

"Yeah," she said, a small chuckle escaping. "Besides, there's nothing for you to dig up."

Castle felt the sting of that a little and accepted it; he deserved it. Instead of dwell, he pulled away and clapped his hands together.

"Alright, dinner order, let's hear it." he said. Kate smiled a little at him and shook her head.

"Burger with fries and a vanilla shake!" Ryan called out from his desk, phone halfway to his ear.

"Hot dog with everything and a coke!" Esposito followed suit.

"Guys, those aren't even in the same _place_!" Castle whined.

"Dude, go to Remy's; or is that just a you and Beckett thing now?" Esposito cracked before dialing his next number.

Kate was chuckling now, on her way up to a good laugh, and Castle loved it. "Fine," he pretended to grumble. "And if you," he poked her arm, "say you want Chinese, I'm sending you out to get all this,"

Kate laughed for real now, short, but a laugh nonetheless, and shook her head. "A burger from Remy's is fine, Castle, if only to get you out of my hair for a half hour."

Castle faked a wounded look before grabbing his coat and heading for the elevator with a spring in his step.

* * *

Two hours later it was closing in on 7pm. Ryan and Esposito had finished checking the alibi's and all five checked out, which didn't put Beckett in a good mood.

They'd also looked over Charles Cahill's surveillance tape again and determined that the thief really didn't seem to notice the wallet.

The food had long since been devoured and Ryan and Esposito had left a few minutes before Castle stretched and yawned.

"We've gone over this too many times. We can come back in the morning and look over it again."

Kate yawned too and frowned. "I hate leaving a case like this,"

"It's to sleep, Kate, it's not like you're calling it closed. It'll be here in the morning," he said gently.

He missed her eyes shooting to his when he used her first name. He did it so rarely and only when he meant to catch her attention that she noticed every time he called her Kate.

"Castle, can I ask you something?"

Castle looked over at her and noted his serious expression. "Anything,"

"That summer, when you asked me to the Hampton's."

Castle's stomach clenched at the mention of that summer. He'd finally gotten Lanie to explain why everyone was so mad at him; he hadn't called and he'd hurt Kate.

He didn't let this show and nodded instead. "Yeah,"

Kate bit her lip before speaking again. "If I'd said yes, right from the beginning when you first asked me. Or even at your going away party, what would you have done?"

Castle was completely thrown by the question. What would he have _done_? What _would_ he have done? Kate was already scrambling backwards though and it made him dizzy.

"Nevermind, stupid question. Doesn't matter now anyway. I'm going to call it a night. I'll see you tomorrow, Castle."

And she was up and out of her chair with her jacket and the case file tucked under her arm.

The elevator doors closed on Castle still sitting in his chair, mouth nearly hanging open.

_What would he have done?_

* * *

The next morning had Castle and Beckett sitting across from Morgan Cahill in the interview room.

"Morgan, I just have a couple questions for you. It shouldn't take long," Kate started, pushing a glass of water across the coffee table to the other woman.

Morgan nodded and picked up the glass, taking a few big sips. "Times like these I wish I wasn't an alcoholic," she tried to joke. It was wasted on Kate, who immediately flashed back for just a moment to her father's experience with alcoholism.

"Alaina told me that you and Elizabeth have lunch on campus most Monday afternoons," Kate said. She watched a slight crease appear between Morgan's eyebrows.

"Yes, since Charles died I decided to try to spend more time with the girls. They're growing up so fast and soon they'll have families of their own to worry about," Morgan replied.

"And this Monday was the same? Lunch on campus?"

"Yes, except I picked Elizabeth up from home and we went out for lunch instead of to campus."

"Morgan, do you know a classmate of Elizabeth's named Claire Bloom?" Kate asked casually.

"Yes, Lizzie sometimes tutors her."

"Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where do they study?" Castle asked with a frown. As much as he wanted to like Morgan, for Kate's sake and to show her it was alright, the older woman was starting to seem a little evasive. Hiding things from Kate never went over very well.

"At the library, maybe in a coffee shop sometimes."

"Have they ever studied at your house?" Kate asked, leaning forward a bit.

Morgan frowned now and shook her head and put the glass down. "No, why? Is Claire responsible for this? Did she hurt Lizzie?" Tears were forming now.

"We're just checking things out, Morgan. Claire hasn't been to your house?"

"No, why are you asking me this?"

"Do you know if Elizabeth and Claire were studying this week?" Castle asked, subtly changing the attention from Kate to himself.

"Yes, they study every week. Lizzie was a good girl; Claire was so horrible to her at school, but was nice enough when they studied. Lizzie said it was karma." Morgan offered a watery smile.

"So Elizabeth and Claire were studying on Monday morning." Castle started.

"Yes,"

"On campus." Castle met her eyes and wouldn't look away.

"Probably,"

"Do you know for how long?"

"Oh they go until Lizzie's class, that way Claire can study on her own and make up questions to ask later,"

"So Elizabeth and Claire were on campus until Elizabeth's class on Monday?"

"Is there a _point_ to this?" Morgan was getting frustrated with Castle's questions and looked to Kate.

"Morgan, if Elizabeth and Claire Bloom were studying on campus until her afternoon lecture, why did you just tell us you picked up Lizzie at home for lunch?"

Morgan hesitated at that and flicked her eyes from Kate to Rick and back. Deciding on Rick's kinder face than Kate's cool one, she settled on him.

"I must have been confused, she was home that day."

"Really, because my partners checked with Claire Bloom and she and Elizabeth definitely studied that morning and she didn't leave your daughter until Elizabeth went to class. They had lunch at the cafeteria on campus." Kate said with a touch of anger.

"Well she's lying, she's the one who did this!" Morgan started to get angry too.

"She had a receipt in her purse; Claire bought lunch for the two of them, because Elizabeth was tutoring her." Kate said back.

"I don't care, she's hiding something." Morgan declared.

"What were you doing Morgan? All I'm asking for is the truth," Kate said, leaning back in her chair now.

"I'm not lying. Claire Bloom is lying. I had lunch with my daughter." Morgan said resolutely.

But Kate suddenly looked at her through new eyes; eyes that recognized Morgan's bloodshot eyes as more than just the result of tears, eyes that took in the way her hands shook and not just from grief, the way she seemed to shift side to side, as if sitting still was too hard.

It was a leap, a fantastic one especially seeing as how Morgan had met her dad through AA, but it was a logical one.

"Morgan, have you been drinking?" Kate asked quietly. Morgan's eyes snapped to hers and anger flared instantly.

"No! What kind of question is that? I'm sober! What would your father think!"

Kate felt her own anger flaring now. "My dad has nothing to do with this! Were you drinking on Monday? Is that why you're lying to me? I have to know where you were when Elizabeth went out on Monday,"

"I'm leaving. This talk is over," Morgan seethed before standing and snatching up her coat and purse.

Kate dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her forehead.

Castle didn't know what to do; she'd let him back in after yesterday's incident and had let him, for lack of a better word, touch her pretty easily. A hand on the back?

What would he have done if she'd said yes? This was going to haunt him for a while. If they'd gone away together and had come back together and were going through this case as a couple, what would he do?

Kate made the decision for him and stood up, took a deep breath and left the room. He scrambled to his feet and followed her.

"What're you doing?"

Kate sat at her desk before answering. "I'm calling my dad. If anyone would know, as much as I hate to admit it, it would would be him."

Castle waited a beat before voicing a thought. "Why is it so important for you to know?"

Kate froze with her hand hand halfway to the phone. "Castle, what if she was drinking the night Elizabeth disappeared? Alaina didn't hear from or see her sister after Sunday night. What if it was Lucas Elizabeth was meeting? What if whoever killed her came to pick her up? Morgan would have seen who she left with. Wouldn't you if Alexis said she was going out with Ashley and he came to pick her up?"

"Well, yes, but-,"

"Castle. If she was drunk or passed out and doesn't remember, we're back to square one. If she does remember and she's still sober, then I'll apologize. I'd rather swallow my pride and say sorry than have this case messed up because of her."

Kate looked over Castle's face and could see he wasn't quite convinced.

"Alaina didn't hear from her sister after Sunday night. She didn't see her on Monday and we were telling her Tuesday her sister was dead. Her cell phone records confirm they didn't text or call each other after Sunday. If Elizabeth left on Monday night, Morgan would know about it. Parents always know."

"Not necessarily, what if she snuck out?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "This girl had lunch with her mother every week. They got along. She gets good grades; does Alexis sneak out?"

"No, but she's also, like, perfect."

"I met Morgan at dinner. I know she didn't kill her daughter, our witness says they pulled up in the alley around 9:30. In a flashy car. I know it wasn't her. But if Morgan didn't see who Elizabeth was with before either of them left, I need to know. And I need to know the truth, and not that Morgan didn't see her daughter because she was drunk. She could have seen the killer and forgotten all about it."

"Beckett, I believe you, okay, I do. But what if Elizabeth just, slipped out? What if nobody saw her?"

"Than the last person to see her alive was Claire Bloom, that we know of, and her afternoon lecture."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"At the very least, I have to make sure the facts are straight. If she honestly doesn't remember or isn't drinking, fine. But she was drinking and she's making things up to cover it, that puts anything she tells us about this case on shaky ground,"

Castle considered it and, while it was a slight stretch, agreed. "Okay,"

"Okay,"

The phone call did not go as Kate planned.

* * *

"_Katie? Why did Morgan just call me in tears and ask to pick her up from the police station? Did you upset her? Is it about Charles or Elizabeth?_"

"Dad, you know I hate to ask, and you also know I have to; do you know if Morgan has been drinking again?"

There was silence. "_Katie_,"

Kate heard something she hadn't heard from her father in a long time. Anger. And hurt.

"Dad, I'm sorry, but I have to ask. There were holes in her story, I'm just covering the bases."

"_No, you're not. You're acting like a teenager because you don't like Morgan_,"

"Dad," Kate said, feeling breathless. Her father had never talked to her like this, gotten this upset this fast, before.

"_No, Katherine, Morgan is not drinking. And neither am I._"

"I didn't ask if you were," Kate absently noticed Ryan and Esposito try to approach and Castle wave them off easily.

"_But you implied it. I'm not an invalid, Katherine, and I'm not a child. I can take care of myself and Morgan can take care of herself and whether you like it or now we're together. Happy together. I was hoping to share this with you,_"

"I know, dad, and I'm sorry; but you asked me to do her this favor and I did. Now her daughter is dead and I need to find out why!"

"_Fine. She's not drinking. I'm not drinking. Goodbye_." and he hung up on her. No 'I love you' and he'd called her Katherine.

She hung up the phone with tears stinging the backs of her eyes and Castle's gaze turned on her.

"Kate?"

"I'm going for some air. Find out what Ryan and Esposito wanted,"

And she stood and left.

Castle let her go for now and turned back to the other detectives who were hovering just out of the way.

* * *

Castle, Ryan and Esposito stood in front of the murder board, going over what the partners had found out.

"We did a check on Lucas Row, Cahill's boyfriend. Kid goes to NYU, art history major like Cahill and he's got a clean record."

"Did you track him down the night Elizabeth was killed?"

Ryan turned triumphant eyes on Castle. "Nope, we can't find him."

Castle made a face. "Isn't that a bad thing?"

Esposito smirked. "Just the opposite; he's missed every class so far this week."

"Again, bad thing, right?"

"Wrong," Ryan said with a small smile. "He'll be easy enough to find. The best part is,"

Esposito took over, "Beckett's gonna fry him in interrogation."

* * *

Castle went to find Kate shortly after Ryan and Esposito told him about Lucas Row being AWOL. He found her across the street from the precinct, eating a hot dog from a vendor.

"What was the news?" she asked when he sat down next to her.

"Lucas Row is missing. And has no record." Castle summarized. He look Kate over head to toe; she seemed back in control of herself now and she hadn't let those tears he knew were just bubbling under the surface fall.

"Shouldn't be too hard to find," she commented and finished her food.

"Ryan and Esposito said the same thing."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments before Castle spoke. "You asked, last night, what I would have done if you'd gone with me."

"You don't have to answer Castle, I was just-,"

"I probably would have screwed it up."

"What?"

"I liked you, then, and I like you now. But I would have messed it all up if you'd come with me then. I wasn't completely ready. The fact that I invited Gina, which was purely to get my book done but on some level was to make you jealous, is proof enough."

Kate stayed quiet as he spoke and didn't look at him when he stopped.

"I know, when I came back, that everyone was mad at me; mostly for hurting you. And for not calling, but mostly for hurting you. I didn't know, Kate, I didn't know you were ready. I didn't know you broke up with Demming and I didn't know you felt the same as I did. As I do."

Kate swallowed and kept her eyes trained on the her precinct across the street.

"Look, I like you. More than like you; we both know it's not about the books anymore. I think you feel the same. I also know you're afraid to say it first now and I know you're with Josh. And he's a great guy."

Kate nodded a little at that.

"I broke up with Gina a few weeks ago."

Kate didn't look at him, but a small smile tugged at her lips.

"I know Josh is a good guy, and I know this sounds extremely conceited but I'm just throwing it out there, but he's not me."

Kate did turn to look at him now, indignant. "Hey-,"

Castle raised an hand to stop her and she actually cut herself off. "I know. The more important question than 'what would I have done' is 'what am I going to do'."

"About what?"

"You."

"What about me?"

"When you say yes."

"To what?"

"Me."

Kate frowned a little and shook her head a little. This was _crazy_! She was with Josh, happy with Josh. Castle was not good for her. To her, yes; she liked him, yes. But who knew what would happen down the road?

She could _not_ do this; she never felt like herself around Castle, she felt out of control and it scared her more than almost anything ever had. Not to mention now was hardly the time to be making decisions like this! The last few hours alone had been emotionally taxing.

"You seem awfully sure of yourself," she heard herself say. Was she _flirting_ with him? _No_! She couldn't give him false hope. She was _not_ going there.

"Your eyes give you away."

"What are they saying now?" When had he gotten so close? How was his face so freaking close to hers? When had he moved? More importantly, why wasn't he moving away? Did she really want him to kiss her right now?

No. Bad thought. Bad, bad, _bad_ thought.

Castle smiled a little and Kate felt her mouth go dry and her heart skip a beat. Oh no, he was going to do it. Why wasn't she moving? Back up!

"You seem to be fighting with yourself, detective."

Kate didn't say anything. She bit her lip. It was not conscious consent, but Castle seemed to take it as such and closed the space between them, right there outside the precinct on an old bench, and touched his lips to hers.

* * *

hehe, good place to leave it for now, right?

reviews are love!

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	5. Lateral Move

thanks SO MUCH for the amazing reviews, and sorry for the wait. school is taking over my life one assignment, one class, at a time :P

this chapter is mostly filler, and may read a little awkward, but that's okay. :)

enjoy -

* * *

Her first and only thought was that kissing Josh had never felt like this.

Thought production stopped after that and feeling took over. His lips pressed just barely to hers, a gentle pressure that spread low heat across her cheeks and down her neck.

Castle seemed hesitant, waiting, and she forced her brain to form a coherent thought. It came out not verbally, but as her hand gently coming up to hold the front of his jacket with careful fingers.

And then he moved. Pulled back for a breath before pressing close again for another taste, and another, and another.

Without consent from her brain, her lips parted and a noise escaped from the back of her throat to be met by one from his. One of his hands, the one that was against the back of the bench, lifted and slid into her hair, holding the back of her head gently so she couldn't run.

But she didn't _want_ to. His mouth was moving perfectly over hers and making her forget her own name. Damn he was good at this.

A breath. Hot breath. Mouths pressed again, and again, and again. Her hand was fisted now, gripping his jacket, and his free one was warm and heavy on her thigh, just above her knee. The heat was spreading now and she was in no position to stop it.

A car horn honked just as his mouth left hers to kiss the corner of her lips and a split second of clarity made her frown a little before it was squashed by his warm breath at her ear. She was breathing heavier and she realized her eyes were closed.

His lips closed so gently around her earlobe and then the space below it and her thoughts scattered. His hand moved up to her waist and pulled her a touch closer and she went willingly.

She barely kept the groan from escaping when his lips touched her neck and her hand came up to his face, fingers touching his cheek gently to bring his attention up to her face again. He followed and as another car horn honked, his eyes met hers.

They were darkened and serious and full of an emotion her slowly clearing mind didn't want to put a name to.

His hand still rested on the back of her head and hers on his cheek, his other at her waist. She blinked a couple of times and realized she had forgotten where they were; sitting outside the precinct on a bench, making out like teenagers. When she had a boyfriend!

Josh. Damn, _Josh_. _Damn_ Josh. The last thought sent her mind into a tailspin and then his mouth was covering hers again, slowly, gently, perfectly. Her lips parted in an attempt to speak and his tongue slid in easily and she groaned out loud this time.

Her hand tried to push him away but she didn't put much effort into it; he eased back anyway and they were both breathing heavily now. She opened her mouth to speak again but nothing came out.

She frowned and he smiled a little before pressing a short, sweet kiss to her lips.

Damn.

They sat watching each other, warm breath mingling between them, hands still on each other as the city bustled unnoticed around them.

* * *

Jim Beckett was a pretty laid back man. It took a lot to rock his boat and make him upset.

Johanna's death had rocked the boat. The result was him falling overboard into a bottle he couldn't find his way out of. Katie had saved him, continued to save him everyday.

He sighed and stared at the chip on the kitchen table in front of him; it was an old poker chip, stripped of its dollar value and instead painted over with a year value. 10 years sober.

He'd spent 10 years cleaning himself up, never touching a drop of alcohol. He didn't go to bars and friends he made since becoming sober that tried to get him to drink, were quickly deleted from the phone log.

Those first AA meetings were the hardest. All those people just as broken as he was, having to hear what they had all gone through to get to this place. Getting up and telling these strangers his story, about his wife, his little girl who had to take care of him for so long.

And then it had gotten easier. Talking wasn't so hard after a while, and people that regularly went to the meetings became tentative friends, confidants. They understood. He found a sponsor, a hobby (carpentry), and lost the feeling that he was fighting a losing battle everyday.

Then Katie had joined the academy. To be a cop. Cops got shot at, stabbed, attacked. Bad things happened to cops. All he could think about for weeks after she'd told him was her in the ground next to Johanna.

It had taken an extreme amount of willpower and countless calls to his sponsor to avoid drinking the first time she got hurt on duty. Just a graze from a scuffle with a drunk, ironically.

All these years later, the worry about her never went away, but the need to drink every time she got hurt did. Katie was strong. Strong enough to take care of herself, to deal with the threat of harm every day, and take care of him all at the same time.

And then he'd met Morgan Cahill.

Every now and then, Jim went to a meeting. Just to stay on track, to remind him that it didn't take much to slide down that slippery slope he'd found himself of when Johanna had died. That one particular night, Morgan was there too.

Her husband had died three years before, in a convenience store robbery. Shot in the chest.

She'd started drinking and it wasn't until she nearly hurt her own daughters (instead of just herself) that she realized she needed help. Her girls had looked up the number for her, found a meeting, gone with her to the church and waited outside for the entire two hours.

So when Jim and Morgan talked for the first time over lukewarm coffee and almost-stale sugar cookies, they found they had a lot in common. So they'd gone for coffee, real coffee, and talked for hours.

They both had loved ones, their spouses, that had been killed. Both had daughters that had played a hand in saving their lives. Those were the two that always made Jim smile; they were good for each other.

They were each other's rocks for those few months, Jim called Morgan when information about Johanna's murder kept him up at night. Whenever Katie got hurt or forgot to call for a few days because of a case, or when she remembered to call him after a hard one.

Even though Johanna was the love of his life, Jim knew that she would want him to be happy if he couldn't be with her. She'd want him to get back some semblance of normal, of content.

Morgan was that semblance of normal.

And now Katie was doubting Morgan's sobriety? It was a hard pill to swallow and sitting here in the early afternoon sunlight, staring at that little 10 year chip, he realized he could have swallowed a little smoother.

He had driven Morgan home and made her promise to call him if she needed something. He'd helped her make a lunch for herself and settle in the living room before leaving, checking for any signs of alcohol on his way out and feeling a little guilty about it. That was also when he started thinking about his daughters reactions to Morgan.

Katie didn't care that he was dating Morgan; or rather, she did but she wouldn't let it interfere with the favour he'd asked of her. Katie wouldn't say any of this without proof because she knew how hard he'd worked to get sober.

Jim didn't pretend to understand women as a whole, but little bursts of enlightenment about his daughter came to him every now and then.

Katie was acting exactly like she was supposed to; her father was dating someone new. He'd blindsided her and she didn't appreciate it. Especially after it being just the two of them for over a decade.

He and Johanna hadn't divorced. She had died. While Kate was an adult and could see the logic of what was going on, she was reacting exactly like he should have seen that she would.

He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.

Just as he picked up the phone, it rang in his hands.

"Hello?"

"_Jim? It's Morgan_,"

Jim sighed a little and chose his words carefully. "I talked to Kate about what happened this morning,"

He heard Morgan take a breath on the other line before she spoke. "_And what did she say?_"

Jim looked out the back door into the yard. "Katie doesn't accuse people of things unless she has a reason. She's trying to help, even if it hurts. Does that make sense?" he kept his voice even and gentle, trying to convey that he wanted to know the truth, but he didn't want to make her angry.

"_I know, I mean, I can tell that now. I just-_," she cut herself off and he pictured her biting a nail before picking up again. "_After all this time, I felt ashamed that she would say that, that she would_," she trailed off.

Jim waited patiently. True, he didn't understand women, but waiting had worked with Johanna and still worked with Kate when they needed to talk. He was confident it would work now.

"_I felt ashamed and I still do because she's right_," Morgan finally said quietly into the phone.

Thick silence settled over the line as Jim felt his breath catch in his throat.

The kitchen was stifling and the sun was too bright.

"What?" he finally managed.

"_I'm sorry, it's just, I don't know. I had a bad day at work and I came home only to have a fight with Aly and Lizzie over something stupid and Jane was out of town for a family emergency..._"

Jim felt a little angry now. "What about me? You could have called, we would have talked and you would have been fine."

Morgan sighed and he knew she was gripping the phone. "_I know, I know, but you hadn't had to call me for this kind of problem in so long. I'm not as strong as you, Jim_."

He sighed a heavy sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. "You need to tell Katie,"

"_I can't, Jim, it's taken everything I have to tell you. I can't stand her judging me as well_,"

"I'm not judging you Morgan, and my daughter wouldn't either. She's been through this with me. She can help. You wanted her help."

Morgan blew out a breath over the phone and Jim held his. He heard her let out a watery chuckle. "_Will you come with me?_" she asked.

* * *

Castle prayed she wouldn't whip out her gun and shoot him. Or twist his ear. Or his nose. Or hit him.

He stared back at her as calmly as he could with the clear view of the emotions sliding across her face.

He'd just kissed her.

He'd just kissed Kate Beckett. What had he been thinking?

_"You asked, last night, what I would have done if you'd gone with me."_

_"You don't have to answer Castle, I was just-,"_

_"I probably would have screwed it up."_

_"What?"_

He'd just gone with it. The words poured out before he could stop them and he knew he didn't really want to. Castle knew what he wanted, knew with crystal clarity, and what he wanted was her. Needed. He couldn't be content with telling himself that he was happy if she was happy anymore.

He put it all out there. And when he said he'd broken up with Gina, he had seen that little smile she tried to hide. It was one that also told him that she'd known it had been longer than a few weeks since he'd seen Gina.

And then she had flirted. Flirted! He was gone after that. He had gone on instinct after that, as he often did around her these days.

And now he sat watching her fight with herself. His lips still tingled from the contact with hers and he felt his stomach somersault at the slightly swollen look of her mouth, the red flush to her cheeks.

"Uh," was all that left her lips.

He felt a smirk creep onto his face and let it show. She smiled a little at that and he smirked wider.

"Reducing Kate Beckett to speechlessness; who knew it would be that easy?"

Kate swatted at him and their arms came back to their owners as if on cue together. Castle could still see her mind working over what had just happened between them.

"So, are you going to shoot me now or leave it to be a surprise?" he asked. He tried for joking, but they could both hear the undercurrent of anxiety and nervousness.

"I may just let it be a surprise," Kate said finally, before looking away and biting her lip.

Castle reached out a hand to touch hers and hesitated a breath away from her skin. She didn't move away but he could see her tense up.

"Are you freaking out?" he asked.

Kate folded her hands in her lap and looked across the street at the precinct. She was just glad Ryan and Esposito couldn't see the street from their desks. "Yeah,"

"Should we pretend this didn't happen?"

Kate could hear that note in his voice again and hated to be the one that put it there. But she wasn't a cheater. And she wasn't about to break up with Josh over the phone. But she wanted to see what this, _something_, with Castle could be.

She thought about his question. Should they pretend it hadn't happened? No. That pretending had hurt them both before. Honesty was what she needed right now, no more innuendos, euphemisms, double meanings or hidden feelings.

"No,"

Castle fought down the grin that threatened to erupt over his features. "No?"

"No. But I'm not a cheater, Castle, and I'm still with Josh. And we have this case to solve."

"So, we don't ignore it, but we don't do anything about it?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

It was an awkward exchange, but it made Castle feel lighter than air and happier than he'd been in a long time.

* * *

By the time they got back inside the precinct and up to the bullpen a few minutes later, they had shaken off their fog and were focused back on the case, deciding to leave their personal lives (soon to be life? Together?) for later.

Esposito caught up with them as they passed the break room. "Yo Beckett, we got a lead on Lucas Row, Cahill's boyfriend. He just used his credit card at a motel six blocks over from Lucky Star Casino and the After Dark club."

Kate and Castle exchanged looks before Kate spoke to Esposito. "Okay, you and Ryan go pick him up. Don't tell him anything about Elizabeth Cahill being murdered. Anything else?"

"Not from me, but Lanie said she found something in the secondary tox screen, left the report on your desk,"

"Have fun," Kate said as Ryan joined his partner and the two left to pick up their suspect.

She and Rick crossed to their desk and Kate smiled internally when he sat in his chair and didn't move any closer than he normally would have, even though she could see it killed him to restrain himself.

"So what did Lanie find?"

"Says here she found trace amounts of marijuana and ecstasy in the second round of tests," Kate read off the sheet with a frown.

"Did Alaina mention anything about her sister being on drugs?" Castle asked, leaning forward to read the sheet. Kate shifted over so he could see.

"No, she never mentioned it. And it didn't look like she was on drugs either."

Castle peered at the numbers on the sheet. "I'm not any kind of expert, but these levels aren't very high, maybe she hadn't been using long. If her sister didn't pick up on it and wasn't doing it, maybe she'd only starting using recently; not even those five classmates slammed her on being an addict,"

"Then where and how was she doing drugs?"

* * *

"Dude, this is super sketchy," Ryan muttered to Esposito as they got out of the car at the motel.

The side streets leading around the motel were dirty, with broken bottles and discarded waster littering the ground. Cardboard boxes and empty garbage bins took up most of the space.

The motel itself looked a little dingy, worse for wear; it didn't look like a place that would take anything other than cash on an hourly basis for less than honorable intentions.

"Sketchy? This is downright shady. Let's just pick this kid up and get out of here," Esposito responded before the partners left the curb and approached the building.

The inside looked a little less ominous than the outside, with worn carpets and slightly stained walls with peeling off-white paint. Behind the desk, which was surrounded by bulletproof glass, sat an older woman with bleached white hair and a cigarette dangling from her fingers. Her nails were painted a neon purple colour that somehow matched her bright blue eyeshadow.

"Fee's $10 an hour, $30 for overnight. Extra charge if anything gets broken," she recited without looking up from her paperback novel. Her voice sounded like she'd been chain smoking since puberty.

"No, ma'am we're NYPD." Esposito held his badge up to the glass. The woman still didn't look up.

"I am not liable for anything that happens in the privacy of my tenants rooms. If you have a warrant, you can look at whatever you want." Also recited. Obviously the cop were called here a lot.

"We're looking for this guy," Ryan held a picture of Lucas Row up to the glass now, tapping it sharply when the woman still ignored them.

The woman's eyes rolled up to theirs in irritation and she stubbed out her cigarette in the already overflowing ashtray.

The name tag revealed by her lifting of her head showed the name 'Francis'. "What about him?"

"We're looking to question him and he used a credit card here not too long ago; you recognize him?"

Francis tilted her head this way and that, staring at the picture. "Sure. He came in about an hour ago. Looked normal enough. Figured he was just a drunk kid from the club or casino finally reaching his limit." she shrugged and picked up a nail file.

"Did he pay with a credit card?"

"Yep,"

"Do you have a receipt?"

"Yep."

Ryan and Esposito exchanged annoyed glances before Esposito spoke. "Can we see it and have his room number?"

Francis gave them another irritated look and leafed through the disheveled ledger off to her right. "Here," she shoved the receipt through the opening and a room key followed shortly after.

"Try not to break down my door. I've already fixed two this month," and she turned back to her book, tossing the nail file down on the ledger.

Ryan rolled his eyes and grabbed the key and receipt, pocketing the latter and handing Esposito the other.

The halls were disgusting, to say the least, with stained floors and pea-green painted walls. A few of the lightbulbs had burned out and the ones that were lit showcased dust and unmentionables in the holders.

"Here, 112." Ryan stopped on one side of the door and Esposito stood opposite. Just as Ryan raised his fist to knock, the door was flung open from the inside and a surprised male face appeared.

He had bright green eyes and dark floppy hair, freckles that stood out from pale skin. His clothes were loose and baggy, with lots of pockets. He looked all of 20 years old, younger with his wide eyes and pale face.

"Uh," was all the younger man managed.

"You Lucas row?" Esposito asked, one hand resting on his holster.

The man blinked once, looked between the two detectives, and then answered warily. "Yes,"

Both men noticed his body start to vibrate a little, like he was either hopped up on energy drinks or something a little stronger...

"I'm Detective Esposito, this is my partner Detective Ryan, we'd like to bring you in for a couple questions about your girlfriend, Elizabeth Cahill."

"Lizzie? Is she alright?" Lucas pulled his jacket tighter around him. His cell phone rang in his pocket but he ignored it.

"Like I said, just a few questions."

* * *

questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?

reviews are love.

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	6. Square One?

hey guys! sorry for the long wait, but here's another chapter;

thanks for the reviews and alerts! they make my day. special thanks to phnxgrl for a great, detailed review.

clearly my last update didn't come across as i wanted it to, I was trying something out and it didn't work, lol, but that's okay :) i hope this makes up for it.

enjoy -

* * *

"Guy looks nervous," Esposito commented from the observation room.

"I'd be nervous too, sitting in that box with Beckett," Ryan answered with a smirk, just as Kate entered the room on the other side of the glass, file in hand.

"Show time," they said together.

"Mr. Row, do you know Elizabeth Cahill?" Kate asked, starting off easy.

"Yeah, she's my girlfriend. Did something happen? Is she okay?" Lucas was biting his thumbnail now, but his eyes were focused; more than they had been when Ryan and Esposito picked him up.

"Elizabeth Cahill was found murdered on Tuesday night. She'd been killed between 6pm and midnight on Monday."

Kate watched his face carefully for a reaction. His eyes widened and tears seemed to fill them, but didn't fall. His face paled considerably and he stopped biting his thumbnail.

"What?" he finally managed.

"Where were you between around 9:30pm on Monday night?"

"No, she's not dead. Are you sure it's her?"

Kate took the pictures from the file in front of her and spread them out in front of Lucas slowly.

"Yes. We're sure." she looked at him and waited until he met her eyes. "Where were you Monday night?"

Lucas bit his cheek and this time a couple of tears did slide down his pale cheeks. "I didn't kill her. We were going to get married, after college. I was saving up for a ring. She's really dead?"

Kate took a breath and a silent moment before speaking again. "I can see that you're upset, Lucas, but you need to tell me where you were on Monday night so I can prove you didn't kill her,"

Lucas looked at the crime scene photos, one hand reaching out to touch one of Elizabeth Cahill on her back before she was loaded into a body bag. His fingers just touched the edge of the picture before he choked on a sob and turned it over so it was face down.

"I didn't kill her." he said, looking away from the table and Kate.

"Tell me where you were."

"I wasn't there. I didn't kill her. You should be out finding the bastard who did."

"Lucas, you not telling me where you were makes me think you're hiding something, and that maybe that something you're hiding is the fact that you killed your girlfriend." Kate said.

"No," Lucas said after a prolonged silence. "No. I didn't kill her. I could never hurt her. Ever. I loved her." he swallowed thickly. "Monday night I was...I was selling, alright?"

Kate frowned and laced her fingers together in front of her. She didn't pick up the pictures or move to cover them. "Selling what? Drugs?"

Lucas' head finally whipped around to hers. "No. Never drugs. I don't touch that stuff, my dad overdosed when I was a kid. Car parts, down by the Hudson Pier." he said slowly.

Kate nodded a little to get him to continue.

"Monday night I was selling car parts, modified for engines, and I got picked up. My mom came and got me because the cops couldn't prove that I had actually sold anything, or that I had stolen the parts to begin with,"

Lucas' voice was getting duller by the word, like reality was finally setting in on him and he couldn't handle it. "I spent Monday night from around 8pm until 2am the next morning in a cell."

Kate waited a second before speaking again. "Did Elizabeth know about this?"

Lucas didn't answer right away. "No. I don't think so. I never told her."

"You never let anything slip? She didn't ask where any extra money came from or where you disappeared to some nights?"

Lucas looked straight at her now. "I never told her anything. I swear. She didn't know."

"When was the last time you saw Elizabeth?" Kate frowned when he sighed and wiped his cheeks.

"Monday, around 6. We had dinner at my place and then I drove her home. She went inside and I went to the pier. I haven't seen her since,"

* * *

"Row's alibi checks out. 7th precinct had him in lock up from 8:21pm until his mother came to get him around 2:12am Tuesday morning." Ryan dropped into his chair after giving Kate the information.

Next to him, Esposito was looking through Lucas Row's credit card statements. "This guy was good about his money too, there's no obvious sign of him doing anything illegal on the side; no extra money coming in or out."

"Maybe some of it was in cash?" Castle piped up from his chair. He didn't dare stand too close to Kate just yet, not with their earlier kiss still zinging around in his brain.

"Could be; put a normal week's salary in the bank and get the difference in cash. Where was his income coming from?" Kate spoke up from the murder board. She finished writing in the information they'd gotten from Lucas before turning to face the others.

"Said he works at a local auto body shop; maintenance mostly." Esposito answered. He'd barely finished his sentence before Kate's desk phone was ringing.

"Beckett,"

* * *

"What's up Lanie?"

"I found a match to the particulates on our victim's clothes," Lanie said when Castle and Kate got down to the morgue.

"Particulates?"

"There were bits of something all over her dress and even in her hair." Lanie handed over a small sample jar with a few of the particulates in it.

"What did they come back as?"

"Individually, nothing; just the everyday grime we all got on us from walking around in New York City. But put together,"

"Something case-breaking?" Castle interrupted with raised eyebrows.

Kate turned a raised eyebrow on him. "Sorry," he said.

"Together, they would be found on someone working with cars. A lot. Wherever she was, there was lots of engine oil and grease and rubber, like from car tires. There was also traces of gasoline on her shoes." Lanie finished.

Kate frowned. "So, she was in a shop before she died?"

"Looks like,"

"Why would Elizabeth Cahill, dressed up for a night on the town, be in a body shop before going to a seedy club and fourth rate casino to be killed by a guy in a flashy car?" Castle asked.

Kate rolled her eyes before answering. "Maybe Lucas is lying and they didn't go to dinner. He works in an auto body shop and she could have picked all this stuff up there.

"That'll work," Castle said.

Kate looked between Lanie and Castle quickly before turning to Castle. "Hey Castle, why don't you go and get Esposito to question Lucas Row again, get him to pursue the fact Lucas could have lied to us."

Castle looked confused for a moment before flashing a sly smile at Kate. "You're going to talk about me aren't you?"

"No, why would I do that?" Kate said, keeping her face normal.

"Oh, I don't know, because you-,"

"Upstairs, Castle." Kate interrupted, pointing out the doors. Lanie looked on in amusement and crossed her arms, waiting patiently. When the elevator doors had dinged closed and Castle was safely on his way back up to the bullpen, Lanie couldn't be patient any longer.

"Alright, what was that all about?"

Kate sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. "We kissed,"

"Excuse me! You and writer boy kissed? When? Where? How was it?"

Kate squeezed her eyes shut. "Yes, a couple hours ago, outside the precinct and too good to think about,"

Lanie's mouth dropped open before it curved up into a smirk.

"Don't say anything." Kate warned without even having to see the look on her friend's face. "I know, it was wrong, I have Josh and he's Castle, the overgrown 12 year old."

"Not what I was gonna say, sweetie, just so you know. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because! He's Castle! I kissed Castle! Oh, my god. I kissed Castle." Kate opened her eyes to see Lanie beaming at her. She groaned and moved to lean against one of the slabs. "Okay, go ahead."

"Obviously, it was an amazing kiss, because you're down here freaking out. I've got just two things to ask you; how did the kiss make you feel and how does Castle make you feel?"

"Do I have to answer that now?" Kate asked with a pleading look on her face.

Lanie chuckled. "Maybe not right this second, but come on Kate; we all see it. Even you and Castle see it. As much as I liked Josh, that _one time_ I met him, you need to dump him and get with writer boy."

"Lanie! I like Josh, he's a good guy,"

"He's also flying all over the world saving people instead of being here with you. And you know who_ is_ here?"

"Lanie,"

"Who else?"

Kate sighed and rolled her eyes. "Castle,"

"And who do you call in the middle of the night after a hard case?"

"Castle," she admitted again.

"Uh-huh. And who's number one on your speed dial? And don't even lie, because I know it's not me or your dad."

"Lanie, you know it's Castle. But that doesn't mean we should-,"

"Yes, Kate, it does. He clearly has the hots for you and now he even more clearly is in love with you; you've saved each other's lives, nearly been blown up and frozen to death together. You've already met his family, his daughter and his mother love you."

"And my dad," Kate added quietly.

"What?" Lanie asked, leaning forward now.

"Castle, he met my dad. But I don't think that counts for anything, we were talking to Morgan,"

"So he's met daddy Beckett and the evil possible-stepmother. Even better." Lanie said gently as she walked around the table and stood in front of Kate. "He likes you, Kate, and you like him. You both deserve to be happy, and if you two don't act on this soon I'll smack you both."

Kate rolled her eyes and stepped around her friend.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me Kate Beckett, I'll do it, you know I will. Maybe it'll knock some sense into you,"

"I'm going upstairs now."

"Mm-hm. Back to writer boy?"

"My case, Lanie, our case. Remember?"

Lanie just raised an eyebrow as Kate made her escape.

* * *

As Kate walked into the bullpen, she saw Esposito moving Lucas Row's picture around.

"Checked out already?" she asked, coming up behind him.

"Kid swears up and down he was not in the shop Monday night and neither was Elizabeth. Called his shift manager who checked the logs for the night and said neither were there. It's a small shop and the manager keeps an eye on the place from his office and he says he knows for a fact those two were nowhere near the shop on Monday."

"Back to square one, again." She sighed, looking up at the board in frustration.

"I didn't say that, come on, have some faith Beckett," Esposito smirked. Kate raised an eyebrow.

"Lucas did finally crack and spill that he not only sells parts but steals them, but also that he's involved in street racing. He said he'd give up the locations if we didn't charge him with anything,"

Kate frowned. "You promised him that? And he didn't ask for a lawyer?"

"I didn't promise that kid anything, and his lawyer was a public defender fresh out of law school who looked just as afraid to be in that room as Row."

Kate shook her head and leaned against her desk. "One of these days,"

"Ah, but not today," Esposito said and they shared a quick smile.

"So, if Elizabeth knew about the street racing, maybe she went to some of them. She wouldn't have to know about Lucas selling parts on the side, and she wouldn't have had to be in the shop where he worked to get all the engine grease and gasoline on her." Kate said. "Where did Lucas say the races were?"

Esposito stood and crossed to the board and picked up a marker. "He said there are five locations they cycle through every three weeks, to try to keep it harder to break up. There's gambling on the races too, 50$ to buy in for the night,"

Something in Kate's brain clicked and she frowned, scanning the board for whatever had just tried to grab her attention. Her eyes settled on the message on the paper from Elizabeth's clothes.

"The buy in is $50?" Kate asked, standing and moving to the board.

"Yeah," Esposito said.

Kate pulled the message down and wrote it out again, but bigger. She circled the _$50_ from the message and then on Esposito's added information.

"Where are the locations?" Kate asked, not looking from his board.

"Looks like three of the five boroughs; there are two in Brooklyn, one in Queens and two in Manhattan."

"And this week's?"

"Manhattan, outskirts of the Upper East Side,"

Kate circled the _UES loc_ part of Elizabeth's message and the location as Esposito wrote out the other locations. "So, if Elizabeth had this in her pocket, she was heading to the Upper East Side location for 10pm to buy into a street race for $50."

Castle came up behind her then with coffee and handed one to Kate. "What'd I miss? Did you and Lanie talk about me?"

Kate let that slide and accepted the coffee. "You're just in time, I was about to build theory with Esposito,"

"Traitor," Castle said to her before coming to stand next to her. "So, shall we?"

Kate shook her head and spoke again, repeating the information.

"Elizabeth knew about the street racing and not the selling of the car parts," Castle said, looking up at the board.

"Right, and if she was going to a race on the Upper East Side, she would have been heading there before she was killed around 9:30," Kate replied, taking a sip of her coffee.

"That would explain the body shop particulates on her clothes that Lanie found."

"Lucas was locked up when she was killed which means he wasn't racing that night, so she had to find another way there. Our witness described the car Elizabeth and her killer got out of and it sounds like a flashy one; a racer." Kate turned to Castle and he mirrored her.

"So our killer is a driver," Castle concluded.

"But why would one of the drivers kill Elizabeth? There's no evidence that says she was a racer, just dating one of them." Kate frowned.

"Maybe Elizabeth was a threat? She was going to try and get Lucas to stop racing," Castle offered.

"Then why would she go to this race without him? Why would she go alone?" Kate asked.

"And how did she get all those traces of a body shop all over her before making it to the race? She was killed around 9:30 and the race was at 10,"

Esposito just smirked and watched them in amusement as his partner came up next to him.

"Mom and dad fighting or building theory?"

"Theory, what'd you find?"

Kate and Castle turned at the sound of conversation and Ryan spoke up.

"Row offered up a couple names for his bid for lighter sentencing and I ran them down. There's just two that popped in the system, Frank Daryn and Kyle Redding." Ryan held out two pieces of paper with addresses, one to Esposito and the other to Kate.

"Okay, so not square one." Castle commented.

"Let's go," Kate said, grabbing her jacket before taking the paper from Ryan. Castle followed to the elevator while Ryan and Esposito took the stairs to pick up the other suspect.

"So," he said.

"Don't make this awkward," Kate said with a raised eyebrow as they waited for the doors to open.

"I was just-,"

The doors opened and Kate cut him off as familiar figures stepped off the elevator.

"Dad?"

* * *

questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?

reviews are love :)

anyone still getting snow out there? i moved an hour away from home for college and my hometown got dumped on while an hour north (where i am) got no snow whatsoever. :P


	7. Right Direction?

Hey guys! Sorry for the wait again, but we're heading into finals now, and the next few weeks will be weeks from hell =P

here's a short chapter to tide you over until the weekend, when I hope to get the next update available. thanks for all the reviews and alerts so far! they make my day.

enjoy -

* * *

"Dad?"

Kate stopped short from walking onto the elevator at the appearance of her dad and Morgan on the other side of the doors. Her father looked worried, and a little disappointed, and Morgan looked sad and guilty.

"Katie, we need to talk to you,"

Kate could tell by his voice that he wasn't angry with her anymore. That and the fact that he wasn't calling her 'Katherine'.

"Uh, sure, what's wrong?" Kate stepped out of the way and Jim and Morgan got off the elevator, the door sliding shut behind them. Castle stood back a little and watched the exchange.

"It's about what happened earlier today," Jim said when Morgan didn't speak.

Kate frowned a little and Castle could see the whole morning was still a source of hurt for her.

He stepped in with ease. "Why don't we go into the conference room and talk," he suggested, letting Jim and Morgan go ahead of him towards the room. When Kate didn't move, he turned to face her.

"What's wrong?"

Kate was looking in the direction of her father and Morgan, who were now stopping at the lack of following footsteps and turning to face her questioningly.

"I have a suspect to pick up." Kate said, by way of explanation. "Ryan and Esposito can't pick up two at once. I'll be back in a bit and we can talk then,"

Castle tried and failed to school his features at her tone of voice. It was flat, and while not unkind, definitely had hurt and frosty undertones.

"Katie, this is important."

"Does it have anything to do with Elizabeth's case?" Kate asked, still not moving. Castle hovered somewhere between the two, looking back and forth. Kate met her father's eyes and didn't break contact.

"It's about Monday, you asked if Morgan was drinking-," Jim started.

"Do you know who killed your daughter? Do you remember seeing anyone on Monday night? Do you remember her leaving with anyone?" Kate asked the questions evenly and in quick succession.

Morgan floundered and looked from Jim to Kate once, twice, before settling for a shake of the head.

Kate nodded firmly. "Okay then. This can wait. I'll be back. Are you coming Castle?"

Castle sent Jim and Morgan an apologetic and concerned look before following Kate into the elevator.

"Katie," her dad started as he took a few steps towards the elevator. Kate didn't stop the doors from sliding shut.

* * *

"So, that was different," Castle dared to comment a few blocks later. They were on the road to meet Kyle Redding.

"What was different?" Kate replied, not taking her eyes off the road. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, though, and really wished he would stop looking at her with those damn blue eyes.

"How you were with your dad."

"You've only seen me with my a couple times. How would you know." It wasn't a question. She made a turn and his soft sigh made her heart clench. It was obvious how much he cared.

"I get it, though." He pushed on, determined to get her to talk to him about this.

"Get what?"

Castle didn't fall into the trap. "He hurt you. He didn't believe you or listen to what you had to say. It was obviously difficult for you to talk to him about Morgan drinking and he threw it in your face."

At this, Kate flicked a look in his direction before turning back to the traffic in front of her.

"I didn't need to hear what he said to see the reaction it caused, Kate."

His name rolling off his tongue made her feel bad for trying to shut him out. But at the moment, it had to be done. She had a case to solve and, now she was fully realizing, a boyfriend to break up with.

"You wanted to show him you're just doing your job, not giving either of them different treatment."

She sighed. He was making this difficult. "I'm not trying to show them anything." she said. "My dad doesn't jump to conclusions and he doesn't get upset easily. I touched a nerve. I have no desire to go back to the conversation that touched that nerve."

Castle sat back in his seat, wincing internally as he hit a spring. He was satisfied that he'd gotten her to talk at least a little and changed the subject. "I'm buying you a car."

Kate frowned at the complete 180 the conversation had just taken. "What?"

"A new car. This one is going to be the death of my back." he said as they pulled up to a stoplight.

"You're not going to buy me a car," Kate said, turning to face him now.

"Fine, I'll tell the captain or the commissioner to buy you a new car."

"First, neither the captain nor the commissioner are going to do what you say, just because you say it. Second, they don't have the budget to buy just me a new car. It would have to be the whole force and there's no money for that."

"Well-,"

"No. You cannot give them the money for that."

Castle smirked as the light turned green and Kate turned away from him. "Spoilsport,"

"Man-child."

The name should have stung, but it had the opposite effect when Castle saw the small smile at the corner of her lips.

* * *

When they pulled up to the address on file for Kyle Redding, Castle frowned in confusion. The building looked like a converted warehouse or an empty firehouse sitting in the middle of a city block.

"Is this the right place?" he asked as Kate came around the car.

"Yeah," she was frowning a little too.

They watched as a man, dressed in grungy looking clothes with a dirt-streaked face, came out of a door off to the side and disappear down the street.

They looked at each other and headed towards the door the man had come out of, pulling it open carefully.

Inside, the firehouse/warehouse had been converted into a sort of tent city; there were small cubicles set up, a kitchen area manned by a few people in white aprons and plastic gloves, a few couches set up around the large, open area. In the center of the room, there were supports for the building and people lounged against them.

Some held cups and plates, others had books; they all looked like the man Castle and Kate had seen leaving moments ago.

"Can I help you two?" a man's voice called from the top of a set of stairs leading up to a small second floor.

Kate turned at the voice and held out her badge. Simple conversation turned to hushed whispers at the sight of it and she had to stop herself from looking around at all the people watching them.

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett, this is Richard Castle; we're looking for Kyle Redding?"

"I'm Kyle Redding, what can I do for you?"

Castle did a double take at the man that started coming down the stairs. In the mug shot, Kyle Redding had long, stringy hair and an almost full beard. He'd had pale, roughened skin and a mean attitude rolling off him in waves, even through picture.

The man coming down the stairs was clean shaven, with just a hint of stubble, clear green eyes and hair that, while a little shaggy and on the long side, was still well-groomed. He had on a pair of worn blue jeans and a plaid shirt over a black t-shirt.

"We'd like to ask you few questions," Kate said, putting her badge away. Kyle smiled a little self-deprecating and sadly.

"Sure. I have the permit for this place, everything's paid up in full and I try to get background checks on my tenants to make sure I'm not aiding and abetting." He tried to joke about it, to make it light, but Kate could tell that he got hassled for whatever he was trying to do here.

Kyle gestured for them to head up the stairs and when they reached the top, Castle took note of the three rooms at the top connected by a narrow hallway. A bedroom at the farthest end, a small kitchen in the middle and what looked to be an office at the end closest to the stairs.

Kyle led them into the office and sat behind his small desk. "What can I do for you?"

Kate pulled out a picture of Elizabeth Cahill. "Do you know this girl?"

Kyle pulled the picture towards him and studied it for a moment. "Sure, that's Elizabeth." he said warily. "Why?"

"Mr. Redding, Elizabeth Cahill was found murdered Tuesday." Kate said bluntly, watching his face closely for his reaction. Behind her, Castle wandered around the small office.

Kyle's face paled and a hand came up to run through his hair. "What?" he asked on an expelled breath.

"She was shot, twice, in the chest." Castle piped up. He was leaning against a file cabinet.

"Do you know who did it?" Kyle was still looking at the picture of Elizabeth.

"Actually, that's why we're here." Kate said, leaning forward in her chair a little.

"You don't think I did this? Lizzie was, she was like extended family." Kyle looked up from the picture now, and he looked angry and sad.

Kate waited a moment before speaking again. "You'd be surprised how often family members kill each other Mr. Redding."

Kyle blew out another breath and folded his hands in front of him on the desk, rested his forehead on the laced fingers heavily. "When was she...killed?"

"Monday night, around 9:30pm."

"I was here, doing paperwork. Until well after 11pm. You can check my security tapes."

Kate nodded slightly and watched his shoulders slump a little with a frown. "How did you know Elizabeth Cahill?"

"Friend of a friend kind of thing; my younger brother's best friend was dating her. Lucas. Oh, man, does he know?" Kyle looked up again now.

"Did you know Lucas Row was involved in street racing? As well as stripping cars for parts and selling them?" Castle asked from the file cabinet.

Kyle frowned deeply before heaving a sigh. "Yeah, I knew. I'm guessing that's why you're here; not because Lizzie was like family, but because Luke gave you my name."

Kate didn't say anything.

"Look, I used to be into all kinds of stuff. But not anymore; I wrecked my car five years ago and almost died. The doctors thought I wouldn't survive the week. When I healed up I gave up racing, and all the other stuff too. Went back to college, started this place up for people like me who just need that opportunity to open their eyes."

Kate took this time to look over the small office herself now. There were few personal pictures in the room, but many of young people standing front of schools and businesses.

"And what exactly is this place?" Castle asked.

"It's like a halfway house. People come here when they have nowhere else to go. I've got a grant from the government and everything. They send tutors and counselors and I keep the food coming and a roof over their heads."

Kyle stood and took a picture off the wall. "This was the first kid I ever really helped. Her name's Sonya; she was heading into drugs, prostitution, dropped out of college. She came here when her parents kicked her out and we helped her get back on her feet."

The picture was of a pale girl grinning broadly, holding up a diploma from NYU.

Kate brought the topic back to focus. "Why would Lucas Row give us your name then, if you're not racing anymore?"

Kyle shrugged and put the picture back. "I don't know. But I don't race. I don't even associate with people from those circles, unless they come here for help."

The answer seemed genuine and Kate was ready to wrap up the interview when Castle spoke first. "What about your brother?"

Kyle stiffened a little and wouldn't look at them. "What about him?"

"You said he was best friends with Lucas, and Elizabeth Cahill. Elizabeth was killed on her way to a race, and her boyfriend was a racer. Was your brother involved in the street racing?" Kate followed the threat.

Kyle heaved another sigh and crossed his arms. "Alan's a good kid."

"That's not what I asked." Kate said now.

Kyle lowered himself into is chair. "I've been trying to help Alan for over a year now. I haven't told our parents, but that's my next step. He has it in his head that racing will put him through college, give him a career for a while and then he can just, quit whenever."

"But," Castle prompted.

"But," Kyle repeated, "You can't just leave. Not when you're winning all the time, when you get paid more in one night than you would in three months at a legitimate job."

"Did Elizabeth know Alan and Lucas raced?"

"Yeah, she went to races all the time. But she seemed to be listening to me; she was trying to get Luke to stop racing, to stop selling parts and focus on school. She was a good girl. I thought, I thought if I could get Luke out, he would help with my brother."

Kate watched Kyle drag his hand through his hair again. "Guess I was wrong. Something must have happened."

"Do you know if your brother has access to a gun?" Kate asked.

Kyle blinked and then his face went red. "No. Alan did not kill Lizzie. He may be screwing up right now, but he's not a murderer."

"Alright, Mr. Redding, thank you for your time," Kate stopped him and stood before he could get angrier.

Kyle calmed himself down and swallowed thickly. "You'll let me know? When you find out who did this to Lizzie?"

Kate nodded and she and Castle left the small office and headed down the stairs. The door to the office clicked shut.

"So?"

"So, what?" Kate asked as Castle followed close on her heels down the stairs.

"So, what do you think? He's totally innocent right? No way he killed Elizabeth,"

They reached the door and slipped out into the afternoon sun. "You're right, I don't think he's involved in this. But the way he talked about his brother, how Alan seemed to be in deep in racing."

"Maybe we should pay little brother a visit?"

Kate was about to answer when her phone rang. "Beckett."

Castle tried to listen in, as usual, but immediately backed off like he'd been burned when she heard her say, "Hey, Josh,"

* * *

just a short chapter until the weekend. questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?

reviews are love!

:)


	8. Always  Pt 1

so. i totally lied about the weekend holding a new post. buuut life gets in the way. i'm very sorry to those still reading the story that this took so long! finals are almost over, actually, i'm free in 3 days, and that means that hopefully (most likely) any and all updates will come faster.

this chapter is another short one, not so much the case as much as character driven.

enjoy -

* * *

Castle hadn't listened like he normally would when Kate answered the call from Josh.

Instead, he'd stood patiently by the car, watching her as she paced a few feet away, listening to Josh speak. Castle tried to tamp down the jealously that flared within him as Kate spoke, tried extra hard because soon he wouldn't need to be jealous.

But at that moment, Josh was Kate's boyfriend, not him. And Kate wasn't a cheater. Yes, they'd kissed and maybe, just maybe, things would work out between them once she dumped Dr. Motorcycle Boy, but to Josh, Kate was still his.

At least, that was Castle's thinking.

But then the phone call had ended abruptly and Kate had strode towards him with a look on her face he couldn't quite put a name to and they were driving back to the precinct, leaving him wondering what the hell had just happened. And also slightly afraid to brooch the subject.

* * *

Jim and Morgan were still waiting where they'd left them by the time they got back, and Kate hadn't said a word the entire trip despite Castle's many and varied efforts. He couldn't help but brim with curiosity over what Josh had said to her.

In the elevator on the way up, he'd tried to touch her shoulder, her hand, to show her that he was there for her, but she'd shrugged him off without a sideways glance.

"Okay, what do you want to talk to me about?" Kate said as she sat down in front of her dad and Morgan. The other woman had stopped crying long ago, but her face was still streaked with the tears and her eyes were still a little red.

"I don't know how to say it, but you were right." Morgan said quietly.

Kate flicked her gaze to her father, who stared right back, eyes conveying that he was sorry he'd doubted her. "Were you drinking on Monday night, when Elizabeth went out?"

Morgan looked to Jim and he nodded encouragingly and she turned back to Kate. "Yes, after our dinner I went home. Lizzie and Aly were still there and Aly was finishing up some work. Lizzie was eating dinner in the kitchen."

Kate didn't bother to write this down. She already knew that Morgan or Alaina didn't kill Elizabeth. She already knew that Morgan hadn't seen or heard anything because she'd been drinking.

As much as she tried to ignore it, though, her dad liked Morgan. She was important to him. So she let Morgan talk and listened, like she did when her dad had relapsed in those early months.

But even as Morgan talked, about the drinking and how she felt and how sorry she was, Kate found herself becoming more and more stressed. Usually when on a case when drinking or alcoholism came up, she could ignore it and not let it get to her. Here and now, though, with Morgan confessing to the relapse, all Kate could think of was how close her father was too.

And he didn't even see it. He was holding Morgan's hand and rubbing her back and encouraging her, but all Kate could think of was, what if he'd been tempted? What if he relapsed? Slipped? The drinking confession from Morgan in such literal close relation and physical proximity to her father made her nervous and skittish and she didn't want to listen to it anymore.

When Morgan finally stopped talking and swallowed her tears, Kate stood and tried to smile, shook Morgan's hand. Didn't question how Castle seemed to know something was wrong and watched him guide Morgan in the direction of the women's washroom to wash up before heading out.

She turned to her father and for the first time in a long while, their eyes met and it was like he understood everything she didn't know how to put into words.

"I'll take her to a meeting tomorrow. There's one at noon in a church a few blocks from her place," Jim offered after a few silent moments.

Kate swallowed and nodded, still watching him.

"I'll stay at the meeting. I'm not going to drink, Katie. I promise." This time, Jim wasn't accusing or offended or upset. This time, he seemed to understand better than when Kate had tried verbally explaining everything.

"Okay. You'll call if you need-," Kate stopped herself. Her dad hated asking for help, just like she did. "If you need anything," it wasn't a question.

"Yeah, I will. We'll have to reschedule lunch," he said with a small smile. Kate returned it and widened it when Jim held open his arms.

She folded easily into them and breathed him in. "That's okay. We'll work it out."

Jim squeezed his daughter tight until she let out a breathless chuckle against his shoulder, held her at arms length, took in her face. "You know I love you," he said. His hand swept hair behind her shoulder and then tucked bangs behind her ear, settled on her shoulder.

She smiled at him and nodded a little. "Yeah, I know."

"Okay. Be careful," His gaze flicked over her shoulder to where Castle was following Morgan back to the conference room. "I'm going to take her home, pour out the alcohol."

Kate nodded again and they separated. "You'll be okay doing that-,"

"Yes. It'll be good, for both of us." Jim said firmly as Morgan came into the room and stood by his side.

"Thank you, Kate, for everything. I'm sorry I lied to you before," Morgan said quietly, glancing at Castle. She remembered his words, on the way back from the washroom, about being honest and upfront with Kate.

"It's alright. Just, call me if you need anything, okay?" Kate shook the hand Morgan offered this time and the two left, moving off to the elevators.

"You okay?" Castle said, coming up behind Kate. She didn't move away from him this time and he took note of it.

"Yeah. He'll be okay. They're going to a meeting tomorrow," she said, watching her father and Morgan get onto the elevator.

"They? Is he-,"

"No. But he's going anyway." Kate interrupted, smiling a little as her dad waved before the doors slid closed. She mentally shook her head as her dad disappeared from view and turned to face Castle.

"So, order in Chinese or are you going home so I can work in peace?"

Castle pulled a face and swept an arm out in an after-you gesture. Kate walked in front of him out of the room and over to her desk with him following, the heavy atmosphere lifting. "Oh, very funny. You could always come with me; home that is. Alexis sent me a text earlier, she wants to try out a new pasta recipe. This one has cheese inside the little pasta bites!"

Kate chuckled and raised an eyebrow at his excited pitch.

"Come on. You need to relax. A home cooked meal will do you some good. Besides, my mother will be practicing her audition piece for a play after dinner and she loves an audience. And you."

Castle could see her caving and poked a little more. "And Alexis would love to get you on her side; she's trying to convince me a summer abroad in Europe alone is a good thing,"

Kate smiled and tried to contain it. Promptly failed. Sighed. Caved. "Alright. Alright. Let's go,"

She tried not to think about how easily she was starting to give in to him.

* * *

Dinner ended up being Thai food ordered in after Alexis accidentally overstuffed the pasta and they exploded cheese all over the oven. Castle had tried to convince them they could still eat it, but they pointed out that they could have if the remains hadn't then burned and crusted to the inside of the kitchen appliance.

They'd eaten and talked about their respective days, Martha sending them into stitches of laughter with a story about a colleague's audition in her earlier days. Alexis did in fact manage to get Kate on her side in convincing Castle that a summer abroad was something every girl should get the opportunity to experience.

By the time Alexis had gone off to bed and Martha had retired to her room for the evening, Kate was relaxed on the couch with her heels off and her second beer next to Castle who held a glass of wine.

"So, detective, was I right about this evening or was I right?" he said, turning to face her.

Kate smiled an easy smile and sipped her beer before answering. "As much as I sometimes hate admitting it, you were right."

Castle grinned and finished his glass, set it down on the table, and went about his favourite pass time; watching Kate.

"Why do you like watching me so much? I'm not even doing anything," Kate asked after a few silent moments of her staring up at his bookshelves and him staring at her. She didn't look at him as she spoke.

"That's when you're most interesting. Nothing to distract me," he answered honestly. He didn't look away from her and it was making Kate squirm, if she was perfectly honest.

Words bubbled up in her throat, words she wouldn't have said under normal circumstances. But then, everything about the two of them was changing. From the way they talked to each other, looked at each other, acted around each other...they'd already kissed for God's sake.

The beer and a half she'd consumed was nowhere near enough to make her drunk, she was barely buzzed; but the small amount of alcohol mixed with the light, fun, warm evening had her relaxed to the point these words came up without much resistance.

"Josh broke up with me,"

The words hung in the silent apartment.

Castle was shocked, but tried not to show it. He knew he was ecstatic Josh was out of the picture. He knew this would be a good thing for him, to make an honest play for Kate, one that wouldn't make her a cheater or him a person who broke up relationships.

What he didn't know was how Kate felt about it.

"Are you okay? Do you want me to punch him? I'm sure it'd hurt, but I could try," he said quietly, injecting a little humour. He was Castle after all.

Kate chuckled softly and took another sip of her beer. "I'm fine. And no, no violence please. I don't feel like bailing you out of lock up."

Castle weighed the pros and cons of asking his next question, but decided that they were still hovering over the friendship part of their relationship. He'd ask as her friend.

"What happened?"

Kate looked down at her bottle and picked at the label. "Don't know. He called me, today in case you're wondering, and said...he said it just wasn't working. He was always travelling and I'm always working."

Castle laid a hand on her shoulder and he felt it tense before it relaxed under his smoothing thumb. "I'm sorry, Kate."

Kate nodded and tore a soggy strip of wrapper off her condensation-soaked bottle. "Yeah, well. He said he met someone, anyway. From the hospital, and on the trip. She's a doctor too, a pediatrician."

At this, his hand tightened. "Did he-,"

"No, he's not a cheater, Castle. He said that he felt something for her, more than he felt for me. And she understood his crazy hours and went on all the same mission trips as he did."

He could see her struggling not to cry, could tell by the single-minded focus she had on the wrapper of her beer bottle.

"She's probably stupid. And ugly." he said lamely, not knowing what else to say.

Kate chuckled and shook her head slowly. "Says the writer. She's nice. And smart. I've met her, her name's Amanda."

Castle frowned and squeezed her shoulder.

"She's blonde and she's got really blue eyes. A really kind face. That's the first thought I had when I met her. The kids love her. And she's always, bubbly." Kate rambled needlessly.

"Never been the blonde-haired type myself." Castle said after a moment of silence. Kate didn't say anything, but sipped her beer again.

"Oh really?" she finally responded. Castle took his hand from her shoulder and instead leaned forward to take the beer bottle from her hands and set it on the table in front of them.

"Nope."

Kate let him take the bottle and followed the movement with her eyes. "You married one,"

"True, but I also divorced her."

Kate shook her head.

"Wanna know my type?" Castle sat back and nudged her shoulder with his where he pressed his side against hers. "Not really," but Kate was smirking slightly now.

"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Not blonde, definitely not blonde. Has to be brunette," he said, reaching up with the arm not touching hers to tug on a free strand of hair. She chuckled.

"And while I adore my daughter's blue eyes, my type doesn't have them." Castle waited until she turned to face him in the silence he left hanging. When she met his serious eyes, he continued.

"Have to be brown. Deep, dark, perfect brown. Like chocolate. Or coffee," he poked her side with the same hand he'd tugged her hair with.

She swatted at his finger and remained silent, though a small smile turned her mouth up.

The hand attached to the arm sandwiched to hers travelled to grasp hers and turn it over, palm up. There were small callouses from firing a gun, wrapping her hands to spar or train and faint scars.

"I bet this Amanda's hands are soft too, from working as a doctor. My type of woman has working hands. She's strong, can stand her ground. But don't get me wrong, her hands are pretty soft too." One of his fingers stroked lightly over her palm and Kate's smirk grew into a smile.

"And," Castle drew out the syllable, "She has a coffee and bear claw addiction, and not one of those black coffee and a bran muffin type diets either. She's able to eat take out and Remy's burgers and exploded cheese-stuffed pasta on occasion,"

At this, Kate chuckled a little louder and gripped his hands in hers. Castle rejoiced internally, but made himself settle, let her make the move she wanted, when she wanted. Being patient and honest had gotten him this far. Kate's head landed on his shoulder gently and he let her get comfortable. "What else?" she asked quietly. He could hear the amusement in her voice. She tucked her feet up next to her on the couch and settled against him.

"Well, she's really tall, wear ridiculous heels and be able to run in them," this got a laugh. "And she be able to put up with me all day, despite the urge to shoot me or lock me up."

Kate nodded against his shoulder.

Castle leaned his cheek against the top of her head. "She smells like cherries, that's like, the deal breaker right there." Kate laughed louder now, squeezed his hand and he didn't wait for her to stop before continuing.

"She puts up with my theatrical mother and loves my daughter, even if they're both too shy to admit to it. She's my muse, even though she says she hates it. I know she doesn't," the last part is whispered conspiratorially into her hair before continuing.

"She has a rough history, but she's come out on top and she's got the battle scars to prove it," he dares to say. He can just see her lips remain smiling at that. He can't help but wonder for all of two seconds if Josh ever really knew about Johanna Beckett or the make-shift murder board.

He moves on. "She plays poker far too well for my liking and-,"

"Okay, I get it." Kate laughs, twisting to look at him. He grinned down at her and felt like he'd burst when she kissed his cheek softly. "Thank you."

"Always," he said back, letting her settle on his shoulder again.

They sit that way for a long time, neither is keeping track of the time, until Alexis stumbles down the stairs for a glass of water and snaps them out of their little bubble.

At the door, they found it to be almost 1 in the morning, and Kate stopped with her hand on the doorframe. "Thanks for inviting me over, Castle, really."

Castle smiled and nodded once. "Anytime, you know you're always welcome. But really, please stay here tonight? It's late and-,"

Kate cut him off with a short kiss to the mouth that surprised them both. This time there are no hands involved, or tongues, and it's quick. Maybe a little familiar. They pull back and stare before blushing.

"Still a cop and armed Castle. I'll be fine." she says to cover up her flush.

"Text me when you get home," he says with a smile on his face that she's pretty sure is to cover the goofy one that's trying to get out. It would match the one she's forcing down perfectly, she's sure.

"Okay," she agreed, and then she left. Before she couldn't think of any more reasons she shouldn't stay.

* * *

hopefully the other half of this, more case centred, by the weekend, when i'm back home from school

until then: questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?

side note: just because I had josh break up with kate over the phone (tacky, no?) does NOT mean i'm done with him or them yet.

reviews are love!


	9. Always Pt 2

So. Life totally and completely got in the way. If there are any of you left still following this, I'm so very sorry for the long ass wait, I have no excuses.

Also, not to spoil anything for those who haven't seen the finale but, wow it was intense. I think I'll be watching it over and over and over again :P

enjoy -

* * *

Saturday morning, Kate woke to her cell phone ringing and vibrating on the bedside table. Sun slanted through her curtains and she cursed the caller as she fumbled for the offending device; she'd finally decided to not set her alarm and sleep in for a change and someone was waking her up?

Sitting up and dragging the phone into her line of sight, she didn't know whether to roll her eyes or grin as Castle's name flashed across the screen.

Biting her lip, she considered a moment before answering the call and falling back against her pillows.

"Good morning Castle," she greeted, closing her eyes again. Maybe the conversation would be short and she could go back to sleep.

"Well good morning detective! And how did you sleep last night?"

She should have known better; conversations with Castle were rarely short. But if she was honest, she didn't really mind all that much. And after Josh, well, broke up with her, it was okay to appreciate the fact she didn't mind.

"I slept just fine," Kate chuckled into the phone.

"Excellent. You sound rested and relaxed." Castle's voice was cheery and Kate smiled as she let it wash over her. It wasn't until the rustle of bags simultaneously coming from her phone and outside her door caught her attention that she noted the mischievous note to it.

"What are you doing?" she asked as a response. There was a thump at the door and her eyes flew open.

"Oh, nothing. By the way, just out of pure curiosity, how does one use a credit card to get through a locked door without making sound?"

Kate shook her head and listened to the muffled shuffling and scratching for a moment in amusement. "I'm not sure. Why don't you just ask me where the spare key is instead?"

"How do you always know?" Castle exclaimed, the noises ending abruptly. Kate laughed out loud and told him where the spare key was hidden. Instead of waiting for him to come in and find her, Kate swung herself up and pushed a hand through her hair, stretched.

As her front door opened and Castle stumbled into her apartment, she stood and grabbed the jeans laying at the foot of her bed and swapped her shorts for the pants. By the time she heard Castle setting down what sounded like an armful of bags and parcels, she'd tossed her pajama shirt behind her onto the bed and clasped on a bra and tugged on a t-shirt.

Castle's footsteps sounded on the hardwood in her hallway and Kate skipped socks in favour of stopping him from coming into her bedroom in search of her.

"Well, well, don't you you just look adorable in the morning," Castle greeted as Kate yanked open her bedroom door.

She couldn't help but respond with a smile. How had she resisted this easy comfort for so long?

"What are you doing here?" Kate asked instead, stepping closer to him and pulling the door behind her shut in the process. Castle didn't step back and remained firmly in her personal space. Kate didn't blink.

"Thought you could use some sustenance; I've got breakfast," he sing-songed the last part and she rolled her eyes and pushed past him to get to the kitchen. Bags and boxes littered her small counter space and there was a stack of movies on her coffee table.

"I think you brought enough to feed a small army," Kate commented, peeking into a bag.

Castle tried to ignore the sight of her bare toes peeking out from the hem of her jeans. "I brought enough to feed one hungry Beckett and one starving writer." he corrected, dragging his attention from the digits.

Kate hmm'ed in response and pulled a wrapped pastry from one of the bags; a frosted cinnamon roll with brown sugar sprinkled on top. She considered it before taking a bite. After swallowing, she shot Castle a smirk. "This could put someone in a sugar-induced coma, or at the very least give them chronic sugar highs,"

Castle grinned back. "I have them all the time,"

"I rest my case," Kate turned back around and moved into her kitchen, pulling down a pair of plates and glasses. Castle was right there next to her when she turned and he took a plate and glass from her.

"So, what shall we do this morning, detective?" Castle asked as he loaded up his plate.

"Let's start with what else you have in these bags," Kate answered, pulling open one on the far end of the counter.

"There's pancake mix, some groceries because I know your fridge is getting empty, eggs, muffins, croissants, with chocolate and hazelnuts in them, pastries from Gordon's, coffee in that tray-,"

"Small army," Kate cut him off, snatching a coffee and a croissant and heading off into the living room.

Castle followed dutifully and stopped when he saw the Cahill file sitting unopened on the other end of the coffee table. "You're not seriously going to work today are you? It's Saturday!" he all but whined.

Kate looked between him and the folder and pulled a face. "Castle, it doesn't matter what day it is. And for your information, I was going to work on this after brunch with my dad."

Castle shook his head and pushed the movies aside. He understood how much it meant to her, to give families closure and the victims justice. He really did. And he wanted to help her as much as he could. For various reasons.

"Alright, let's go through it again." Castle sighed in mock irritation, dropping onto the couch beside her. She smiled brightly at him and his heart seemed to skip a beat and his stomach flipped over. He set his plate down and he fought down a grin when she did the same and moved closer to him with the file.

"Okay, around 9:30 Monday night, Elizabeth Cahill was murdered in an alley between the Lucky Star casino and the After Dark Club." Kate started before taking a bite of her croissant.

"Witness said he saw a muscle car, modified, with bright blue running boards and a green stripe across the back pull up and two people get out and go into the alley, but only one get back in and drives away. He says one of the people was stumbling slightly. We're assuming this is Elizabeth Cahill." Castle picked up the story and took a sip of his coffee.

"5pm Tuesday, Elizabeth's body is found with two gunshot wounds from a .45, blunt force trauma, and a piece of paper with a location, time and dollar amount written on it. Blood work shows intoxication and no significant, prolonged drug use."

"Elizabeth was involved in street racing somehow, probably through her boyfriend Lucas Row."

"Who alibied out," Kate pointed out with her cup of coffee.

"Our would-be suspect leads us to Kyle Redding, a one-time street racer who's reformed and runs a half-way house for recovering addicts and seems to be covering for his brother, Alan."

"Alan, being Lucas' best friend, knew Elizabeth."

"So this is where we're stuck. Who was driving that car if not Lucas Row?"

"What if they were partners?" Kate asked after a few moments of chewing on both their parts.

"Who? Elizabeth and Alan?"

Kate shook her head and spread out the statements and reports. "No, Alan and Lucas; what if they raced together."

"But Lucas was selling stolen parts the night she died, he was in lock up and skipping class during the week. He didn't even know she was missing," Castle pointed out.

"Kyle Redding said he was trying to get his brother Alan out of the races. He tried to go through Lucas thinking maybe he could get Elizabeth to talk to Lucas, who in turn would influence Alan. Since they were all so close," Kate thought out loud.

"And when Lucas didn't seem so interested, Kyle threatened to hurt Elizabeth?" Castle asked.

Kate thought, "No, he alibied out too. What if Alan Redding thought it was working? What if he thought Lucas was considering stopping street racing? If Alan lost his partner, that's money he's not going to win."

"And Alan doesn't like that, so he goes to his best friend and talks him into staying in business, selling parts and racing. He thinks Elizabeth is the one talking to Lucas, telling him to quit,"

"So he lures her out for the night, to a race, tells her they need to make a stop somewhere, and that's where she gets the particulates from a garage on her."

"And the stop is the alley between the casino and the club; before they leave he gives her a few drinks and they're on their way."

"They get to the alley and get out for whatever reason, argue, and Alan kills her."

"Not to mention he's a racer; I've seen the Fast and the Furious, they have some pretty flashy looking cars,"

"So our witness saw Alan's car pull up, Alan and Elizabeth get out, and Alan get back in and drive away for the races."

"Now how do we prove it?"

They sat back in silence for a moment before Castle bolted upright. "Lanie!"

Kate frowned. "What?"

"We need to ask Lanie to look over those particulates from Elizabeth Cahill's dress again; I was doing research for a book where one of my characters was going to operate a drug ring from inside an auto body shop-,"

"Original," Kate cut in sarcastically with a smirk.

"But, I couldn't figure out how to make it unique," he stressed with a swat to her thigh.

"So what'd you come up with?"

"All those procedural crime shows are always talking about bird poop only coming from birds in one area or a bunch of bugs only floating around from one state. All that nonsense. Well, wouldn't it work the same for auto body shops?"

Kate caught on. "If Alan was using a specific combination of motor oil, engine oil and grease, car parts or rubber that his competition didn't know about, then we can tie the unique blend on Elizabeth'd dress to the garage he works at,"

"And that would be how she got all that on her dress, from being in the garage with him and then in his car. Alan Redding took her to a garage first to pick up his car before he drove over the alley and killed her."

* * *

"So tell me what happened, Alan. Did Elizabeth piss you off? Did she tell you she was talking Lucas out of street racing? Ask you to do the same?"

Kate sat in front of Alan Redding; Alan was slim and tan, a skinnier version of his brother with a mask of bravado barely covering his fear.

"I didn't kill Lizzie. She was my best friend's girlfriend. She was my friend too. I would never hurt her,"

"Really, because, we have crime scene techs at the garage you work in right now, combing everything over to match particulates found on Elizabeth. We also have a witness that says they saw your car on Monday night in the alley when Elizabeth was killed." Castle cut in from his place behind Kate.

"Maybe someone borrowed my car. We do it all the time." Alan threw out, crossing his arms. His foot started bouncing under the table and Kate flipped open the file resting in front of her.

"See, we also found a pile of vomit in a garbage can at the other end of the alley. Saliva and fingerprints on the can match your prints and your DNA," she pushed the printout towards the boy, knowing full well it wouldn't mean much to him.

Especially since the printout was the chemical compounds of ELizabeth's drug screening.

"Okay, so I found her body that night. But I didn't kill her! I go to the casino before a race sometimes, to try and catch some luck, you know?" Alan licked his lips and clenched his arms tighter over his stomach.

Kate leaned back. "Do I look stupid to you?" she turned her head and asked Castle.

Castle tilted his head to one side, considering. "No, not particularly; how about me? Am I stupid looking?"

Kate tilted her head too and squinted before answering. "Nope, not you either." she turned back to Alan. "How about you, Mr. Redding? Do we look stupid enough to believe that story to you?"

Alan looked back and forth between them and found his last reserve of bravado. "I don't care if you believe it, it's the truth."

Kate's phone buzzed and she glanced at the text before handing the phone to Castle who read it as well.

It was a message from Lanie; the garbage can vomit and prints hadn't been a fake-out. Whoever had been in that alley had gotten sick right after killing Elizabeth, clutched a garbage can and hurled inside, spitting on the concrete next to it.

The DNA matched and so did the prints they'd taken on Alan's arrest.

At the end of the message, Lanie had typed that she'd sent the report up with Esposito and it was on its way.

Castle opened the door as Esposito knocked and took the file, sliding it to Kate. Alan's eyes watched the movement and sweat broke out on his forehead.

"So, Mr. Redding, where were we?" Kate spoke after glancing through the file, forcing herself to go slow and sweat him out.

"I didn't kill her. You're bluffing, lying. I wasn't there."

"Ah, I remember, he was in the middle of lying," Castle quipped from his spot.

"Here's what I think happened, Alan. Your brother wanted you out of street racing. He tried to get Lucas to talk you out of it, and when that didn't work, he tried to find another way to reach you. You thought it was Elizabeth Cahill, Lucas' girlfriend. If Elizabeth talked Lucas out of racing, you'd lose your partner and part of the profit with him. So, when you couldn't get Lucas on your side for sure, you killed the other voice in his head." Kate said, not break eye contact with Alan.

Alan bit the inside of his cheek; he was pale now and his whole leg was bouncing under the table. Sweat now beaded his forehead, upper lip and Kate could see it started to soak through on his shirt collar.

"So? Did I leave anything out? Might as well tell me now before those officers come in here to haul you off to prison," Kate said, folding the files back together slowly and rising to her feet.

"She was ruining everything!" Alan blurted out, his hands smacking down on the table in fists that shook. Kate turned and faced him calmly.

"How was she doing that?"

"She was going to get Lucas to stop racing! How the hell do you think I payed for school? My job at the garage? I barely made minimum wage! Luke and Lizzie and Alaina, they wanted to transfer in a few semesters, to Columbia or Princeton; they all got accepted early and I barely got in. How was I supposed to afford an ivy league education when I can't afford NYU?"

"So your argument, your rationalization for killing Elizabeth Cahill, is that she was stopping you from making illegal money?" Castle raised an eyebrow.

"My parents are broke, okay! We don't have enough money and I'm drowning in student loans already! Me and Lucas, we were good racers; we made good bets and sold parts and we were good at it! If Elizabeth talked Lucas out of that, where did that leave me? Broke, again!" Alan was almost pleading with them to understand.

"So you did the only thing that guaranteed Elizabeth stopped talking to Lucas." Kate prompted.

"I told her I would give her a lift to the race that night. I said Luke would meet us there, that he was getting the car tuned up on site. She listened to me, we were friends." Alan deflated and all the fight left him. He slumped in his chair and stared at the table top.

"I picked her up and we had some drinks at the garage before we got into my car and left for the race. We had to go in the back because the manager's all over that place like white on rice. Never locks the back entrance though. And I didn't lie about going to the casino; I go there before almost every race. Elizabeth knew that. We got out and usually we sneak in the back, to get past the security guards."

Kate and Castle glanced at each other and Alan kept talking.

"I already knew she was going to fuck everything up between me and Luke. I had a gun from one of the other racers. We pass it around, for protection from rivals, you know? Elizabeth wasn't as drunk as I thought and she knocked it from my hands. So I grabbed a pipe and hit her."

Alan swallowed thickly but didn't look up. Castle and Beckett didn't move.

"She didn't go down." Kate supplied when Alan seemed to lose his words. He shook his head and frowned a little.

"No, she was too stubborn. But she snapped her heel and lost her balance a little. I dove for the gun and before I could think about, say anything to her, it went off and she was laying there, staring at me. There was blood and I just couldn't..."

"You threw up," Castle said now.

"I left. I raced. I won. I paid next semester's tuition early." Alan said offhandedly.

Kate shook her head and opened the door. "Too bad you won't be going."

* * *

a short piece to finish off the case aspect of the story before the fluff/angst? part kicks in.

review if you're still interested?

questions, comments, thoughts, concerns, always welcome

thanks to all that have taken the time to review so far! it means a lot.

reviews are love :)


	10. Hands, Touching Hands, Reaching Out

oh frak it's been a long time, hasn't it? work is ridiculous as is moving houses, but what can one do? hopefully you're (all?) still enjoying this! just a couple left!

enjoy!

* * *

A week passed since the afternoon Alan Redding found himself a new home in a holding cell and Castle had given Kate space to be with her dad and get to know Morgan, as well she could, after closing the case. He and Kate talked on the phone mostly, since Montgomery had given Kate an order for vacation from the precinct. Ryan and Esposito enjoyed the time off as well, taking a much needed break.

It was Saturday morning again, but this time, Kate was the one showing up at Castle's door, cell phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder as she juggled coffee and a bag of bagels.

"_Good morning Detective_," Castle's cheery voice greeted her over the line.

"Morning Castle," Kate couldn't help but smile at his voice. She had to admit, after many talks with Lanie and, surprisingly, her dad, that she'd missed him.

"_What can I do for you on this fine Saturday morning?_" he asked. Kate could hear something sizzling in a pan and smell the bacon from the other side of his door. In the background, she heard Alexis ask if it was her on the phone.

"_Yes pumpkin, it's Kate_," he said, his voice coming muffled for a moment.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you a question," Kate said when she heard his breathing on the other line again.

"_Ask away_,"

"Just out of pure curiosity, how does one use a credit card to get through a locked door without making sound?" she asked with a small smile.

Within moments there was a dial tone in her ear and a grinning redhead yanking open the door in front of her. "Detective Beckett!"

"Morning Alexis," Kate started awkwardly before she steadied her nerves. "Take the bag?" She smiled.

Alexis easily took the bag so Kate wouldn't drop it and stood aside to let the other woman in, closing the door behind them. Kate immediately felt the warmth and atmosphere of the place envelop her, even more so than the kitchen at her dad's place when she'd gone for breakfast a few days before.

"Ah, good morning Kate, what brings you around this morning?" Martha greeted from the breakfast bar, a tall flute of orange juice (and probably a touch of alcohol) in hand.

"Oh, just in the neighborhood." Kate replied, handing over the tray of coffee to Alexis who had already bounded to the table and set down the bagels and come back.

"What's this?" Alexis set the tray down on the breakfast bar and touched the lid of a coffee cup. She was used to seeing her dad with two coffees, one for him and one for Kate. Always two.

"Oh, that's for you." Kate replied as if it were obvious before taking a seat on the other side of Martha.

"For me?" Alexis picked the cup out of the tray and held it for a moment before looking to Kate.

Castle watched this with amusement and curiosity; coffee was almost a sacred thing for Kate, for them together. Adding Alexis and coffee to their mix was...intriguing. And more than a little heartwarming.

"Yeah, caramel macchiato with whole milk. I got them to put a few hazelnut sprinkles in there too-," she cut herself off as the three Castle's looked at her in awe. "What?"

"You remember that?" Alexis asked with a smile growing across her face.

Kate smiled back, a blush creeping across her cheeks. "Yes, from when you wanted to talk to me a few months ago. Did I do something wrong?" She looked to Castle for the answer.

"No, just something amazingly you." he said with a wide, warm, Castle grin. She was sure it was a Castle grin because it matched Alexis' and the one growing on Martha's lips too.

She cleared her throat and reached out for her coffee then, which Alexis hurriedly pulled from the tray and handed to her. Castle took his as well and served up the bacon and eggs, easily sliding a plate in front of Kate as well.

When Martha and Alexis were engrossed in a review in the paper about the off-Broadway play Martha had turned down, Castle sidled up next to Kate, who was fiddling with her coffee cup.

"Have I told you how extraordinary you are?" he said from right next to her, startling her out of her thoughts.

Kate smiled a little and nudged his shoulder. "Not lately,"

"Well you are, extraordinary that is." he replied, daring to slide an arm over her shoulders. He watched Kate's eyes flick to his mother and Alexis. "I told them, by the way. About-," Castle didn't want to call them and 'us' yet. They hadn't been out on a date, hadn't spent real time together since a week ago, hadn't kissed again...

"Us?" Kate filled in the word seamlessly, but with a small smile.

Castle dropped a kiss to her cheek. "Yes. They're quite happy about it. There may have been cake to celebrate."

"Cake? And I wasn't invited?" she teased back.

Castle turned her to really face him after a moment and made her look at him. "What's going on Kate? Not that I mind at all that you're here. We're thrilled. Through the roof. But something's bugging you."

Kate sighed and looked away. "It's Morgan, she-,"

"Is she okay? Your dad?" Castle immediately asked.

Kate smiled a little at that and met his eyes again. "No, they're fine, it's just...she asked me to go to Elizabeth's funeral. It's today. Well, this afternoon, at 3. I was hoping...I was wondering if you'd come with me. I haven't been to a funeral since,"

"I'll be there." Castle replied before she could even finish the sentence. One of his hands came up and tucked hair behind her ear, settled against her neck. She smiled at him and took a deep breath.

"I have to go change, I'll be back around 2:30?" she was sliding from his grasp and turning for the door.

"I'll be waiting," Castle followed her as they headed for the front door.

"Bye Detective Beckett!" Alexis called out, Martha echoing the words.

Kate answered them and turned back to Castle. "Tell them it's okay to call me Kate." she smirked. And she held herself still as Castle reached for her hands and held them easily, leaned down to her and dropped a light, sweet kiss on her lips.

"I'll see you later Kate," he smiled when she bit her lip.

She nodded and was gone.

* * *

When Kate returned a few hours later dressed for the funeral, she was shocked to discover all three Castle's waiting in the living room.

"Martha, Alexis?" she asked.

"We're coming too. You're like family to us, dear; and by extension so is your father. Who will also need the support." Martha explained.

"Dad told us about your dad and Morgan; don't be mad at him," Alexis rushed out when Kate cast a look at Castle, "But if he and Morgan are serious, they're family too,"

Kate couldn't believe the heart of this family. "Okay, thank you." she managed.

The four piled into Castle's car because for once, Kate was in no mood to drive, and headed for the cemetery. Halfway there, Castle folded their hands together on the divider and held on.

The service was small, starting in a small church with beautiful stain glass windows before moving out to the cemetery in the back. The field was long and wide, beautifully maintained with lush green grass and neat headstones, a majority of which had bright, vibrant flowers resting in front of them. Jim had stood with Morgan and Alaina, his hand clutched by the former. Morgan had tears in her eyes the whole service, which tugged at Kate's heart painfully. Alaina didn't cry at all, just stared, hands folded together.

Kate met her father's eyes as the casket was lowered into the ground and they didn't need words. He nodded at her '_you okay, Katie?_' and she nodded back '_I love you, dad_'.

When the service was over, family and friends going back to the reception hall in the church for a small meal or wake of sorts, Kate caught up with her dad and Morgan.

"Thanks for coming, Katie," Jim whispered into Kate's ear as he held her tight against him. Her arms encircled him firmly as well, closing her eyes and taking in his warmth and life.

"Of course, dad; it was a beautiful ceremony," she said honestly.

"And Rick, thank you as well," Jim was turning to Castle now. Kate wondered when her dad and Castle had got on such friendly terms. She decided she didn't want to know and moved on to Morgan.

"Morgan," she said softly and let the woman embrace her tightly, even returning the hug. In the past week, Kate had gone with Morgan to an AA meeting while her father stayed home with Alaina. They'd come to an understanding of each other, a mutual respect.

"Thank you, Kate, for everything. I don't know how to thank you enough, for Lizzie and for Charlie...you and Rick, you're amazing,"

"Rick?" Now Kate was puzzled.

Morgan laid a hand on Kate's arm. "He paid for the funeral; the casket, the service, the caterer." she trailed off with a wet smile.

Kate turned to Castle who was talking quietly with Martha, Alexis and her dad. "Of course he did," she replied softly, with a small smile.

"I was wondering, if you could do me a favour. This one doesn't involve solving a murder, I swear," Morgan said tearfully, but Kate could hear the joking undertone.

"Sure,"

"I lost track of Alaina, when we arrived back inside, do you think...could you find her? Make sure she's alright? I know it sounds horrible, but, I can't...when I look at her, I see Elizabeth and Charlie and it..."

"Hurts," Kate finished quietly. Her father had gone two weeks without looking at her or talking to her after her mother's death; she didn't understand why until years later, when he was back on his feet and sober and he'd told her. She looked like her mother, a lot like her mother. It was hard.

Morgan pulled her into a hug again and smiled a little more when Kate squeezed back in a genuine hug. "I'll find her,"

Kate left the reception quietly and wandered through the silent church, out a side door to the small playground attached before finally finding herself back in the cemetery.

There was only one dark spot against all the white and grey headstones and bright flowers and green grass; sitting hunched over a fresh layer of grass and flowers.

Kate took a deep breath and walked slowly over to Alaina, swallowing the lump in her throat when she got close enough to see the girl's shoulder's trembling. She had spent some time with Alaina over the past week, but the girl always seemed to be leaving; up to her room, out onto the porch, to the library. She avoided the contact with her mother, Jim and even Kate.

Kate eventually reached Alaina and crouched down behind her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Alaina flinched and wiped at her eyes quickly, not turning around. Kate shuffled forward and sat right next to her, both of them staring at the fresh marker before them.

_Elizabeth Willa Cahill_

_August 23 1991 - April 9 2011_

_Beloved daughter, friend and sister_

_And if you care to find me, look to the western sky, _

_as someone told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to fly..._

"Where's the quote from?" Kate asked quietly.

"She was obsessed with _Wicked_. We went to see it once, for our birthday, and she just...fell in love with it." Alaina answered with a smile in her voice.

Kate didn't know what to do when Alaina's shoulder's starting trembling again, but she looked over at the girl and her hesitation grew into confusion.

Alaina was laughing.

Not hysterically or strained, not like she was crazed or a sociopath; she was laughing a true, warm laugh that made Kate want to smile too.

"What?" Kate asked.

"Her name. Elizabeth Willa. Our cousins used to tease us," Alaina chuckled again and traced the letters of her sisters name. "Not only are our names old fashioned, but hers spell EW. Ew." she broke into laughter again and Kate smiled.

"What do yours say?"

"AW." Alaina said before turning Kate and crooning 'awww' in a voice that spread a wide smile over both their faces. "Alaina Willow. Jeez, Aw and Ew."

They fell silent together. After a few moments, Alaina's cool hand slid into Kate's, fingers folding together. Her voice was quiet and sober again when she spoke.

"My sister's boyfriend's best friend killed her. Because she was interfering in their illegal money making. He shot her and left her in an alley. What kind of person does that make him? Or Luke for being his friend? Or Lizzie for dating someone with a friend like that? Or us for not realizing-," she cut herself off with a trembling sigh that Kate was sure were tears now, and not from laughing like before.

They sat in quiet then, taking in the sun and breeze and grass beneath them.

"Does it ever get easy?"

Kate didn't understand for a moment, but took a breath and felt the breeze skim across her face and smelled on it the scent of the flowers she forever associated with her mother's funeral.

"You mean life?" she asked in return, squeezing their hands.

"Yeah, does it get easy?" Alaina sounded small now, tired. She shifted under her legs weren't crossed but folded to one side and leaned her head on Kate's shoulder. Kate thought a moment before answering.

"What do you want me to say?"

"Lie to me," came the soft response.

Kate hadn't seen this connection coming, but she suddenly felt it with Alaina, sitting there in the breeze, comforting her. She'd never had siblings...

"Yes, it's all pretty simple. The good guys are alway unwavering and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always catch them and save the day. Nobody ever dies and everyone lives happily ever after." she said in a voice that bordered on sarcastic but was touched with just enough care to make Alaina smile.

Alaina sat up and got to her feet, pulled Kate up with her, before they turned to go back to the wake. She spoke again, lips quirking up on just one side.

"Liar."

* * *

"Everything okay?" Castle caught her elbow when she reappeared with Alaina a few minutes later.

"Yeah, everything's okay," Kate answered, grasping his hand in hers.

Castle glanced down at their hands but didn't question it. Kate seemed to be ready, ready to stop pushing him away, to stop coming up with excuses why they couldn't be together, why they wouldn't work. He'd been ready for a long time if he was honest with himself.

"Good," he said and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Thanks, Castle, by the way."

"For?"

"Morgan told me what you did,"

"Kate, I told you before, money-,"

"I know," Kate stopped him with a smile. "I know. And I appreciate it. So does my dad and Morgan and that's...thank you."

Castle frowned a little at the new acceptance and pulled her close to his side. "Does this mean I can buy you-,"

"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!" he almost whined in her ear.

"I'm sure I could guess." she drawled.

"What would you have guessed?" he asked excitedly.

"Castle," she sighed. But there was a smile on her face.

* * *

_3 months later..._

* * *

Three months blew by. Castle convinced Kate to go out on a proper date with him; dinner, dancing, a movie, the works. Ryan and Jenny set a date for their wedding, Lanie and Esposito finally acknowledged that they weren't fooling anyone.

When Morgan and Alaina moved in with Jim two months after the funeral, they threw a barbecue. They said it was a celebration for Alaina and Alexis, who were both finished with school for the summer, even though Alain had finished at the end of April.

Jim easily accepted Rick and the ready-made family he came with for Kate and loved Alexis as a child of his own already. He and Martha and Morgan played poker every week. Martha started consuming less alcohol, not that she had any real problem with it before.

Life was getting back to normal for the Cahill's and Jim and by extension Kate.

By the time three months had passed, Kate had (reluctantly at first) moved into the loft with Rick and Alexis and Martha. That too was a seamless fit it seemed.

* * *

When Rick walked back into the loft after two weeks in LA on business, the first thing he did was throw his briefcase into his study; he hated that thing, hated carrying it. Too much a grown-up thing if he was honest with himself.

The second thing, seeing as how it was 7 in the morning on a Sunday and he was jetlagged, was make coffee and toe off his shoes.

As he reached for the fridge to get the milk, a cream square of stationary caught his attention. Forgetting the milk, he pulled it off the magnet it was attached to and flipped it open with curious fingers.

With the meaning of the words setting in, he wondered why it was on the fridge. Wondered who put it there and why. Did Kate know about it?

Stupid question, of course Kate knew about it; she was a detective, even if she hadn't put it there herself, she would have noticed it shortly after it was stuck there.

Rick abandoned the coffee maker, which was starting to gurgle, and headed up the stairs to his and Kate's room. Out of habit, he checked in on Alexis (who was spread haphazardly across the bed and sleeping soundly) before silently pushing open the door to their bedroom down the hall.

Kate was curled on side facing away from the door. The covers were pulled up to her ears and all Rick could see was the outline of her body and the mass of brown hair that spilled across the pillow.

He eased in to bed on the other side of her so they could be face to face and stroked a finger down her nose. She stirred a little but didn't wake, so he gently poked her cheek, traced her jaw and finally gently called her name.

Amazing how soundly she slept when it was her day off. Most mornings it was easy to wake Kate up, the slightest noise or movement and her eyes would blink open. Not on days off, Rick was pleased to learn.

"Kate," he repeated softly.

She mumbled something and then her eyes opened sleepily. "Rick. It better be noon or close to it,"

"What, no welcome back kiss? No welcome back se-,"

"Sh," Kate cut him off, but smiled anyway, sliding her head forward to plant a kiss on his mouth that left them both breathless.

"What do you want at," she craned her neck to see the clock over his shoulder, "God, 7 in the morning?"

Castle perched the card on the mattress in the thin space between them. Her sleepy gaze focused on it before she smiled a little. "Found that did you?"

"And you're," he searched for a careful word, "Okay, with this?" he watched her face, her eyes. They always gave her away.

"Yeah. I'm fine, Castle." They hadn't completely broken the habit of 'Beckett' and 'Castle' yet. It was too much their thing.

"Really?" he wanted to make sure. Kate tended to bottle things up, didn't like talking about it. He wanted to be sure. This was, this was big news.

Kate reached out to touch the card.

You are invited to the wedding of

_James William Beckett and Morgan Marie Cahill_

was embossed on the front. Inside were details, a location, time directions, RSVP.

Their box was checked.

"They both came to me, separately of course. My dad first; he called me to have lunch and told me he wanted to propose. He said that, no matter how much he loved my mother, how much he still loved her, Morgan made him happy. They were happy together, loved each other. And my mom would want that for him. So do I. So I said it was okay,"

She chuckled and Rick laid the invitation down flat, smoothed a hand over her blanket-covered hip. "Like he needs my permission or something," she said quietly.

"It's important to him that you're okay with it. He loves you so much,"

"I know."

"And Morgan?"

"The next day. They swear up and down they didn't plan it, but she came to the precinct to talk. You were helping Ryan find a tux and she sat down in your chair. She asked me, she asked me if my dad ever proposed and she said yes, if that would be okay. We talked and, she's a good person, Rick. Really. I'm fine."

Rick watched her closely before nodding to himself, satisfied she was telling the truth.

"You realize this wedding is in a week." Rick pointed out after a few quiet moments. Kate moved easily into his arms and kissed his neck.

"Yes,"

"That was a fast engagement,"

"Life's short. We got the invitation the day you left for LA." Kate replied, already snuggling back under the comforters and falling asleep. Rick felt his heart jump, as it usually did, when Kate referred to the loft as home or all of them together as 'we'.

"And you ladies all have dresses?"

"Yep."

"Tell me you didn't pay for yours." Rick nudged her when she didn't answer right away.

"Alexis tricked me into using your card, so no, I didn't buy my dress." Kate chuckled from under his chin.

"Good."

"Now, can you lay still and silent so we can snuggle or are you going to keep me up?"

Rick tugged her closer and drifted his hand down her back. "Kate Beckett, a secret snuggler. Who knew,"

"Shut up, Castle,"

* * *

questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?

i used a quote from buffy in this chapter, points if you can figure out where (the words are a little changed to suit how kate talks, but still...).

thanks so much for the support so far! hopefully i can update shortly!

reviews are love!

:)


	11. First

okay. here's the next bit. it's being posted slowly, but it's being posted, haha.

i still don't own Castle and wouldn't know what to do with myself or the show if i did.

thanks for all the reviews and alerts! they make me smile. :) - like this.

enjoy! -

* * *

Josh. Davidson.

Two words, _one single name_, had never brought so many insecurities rushing to the surface as these.

Rick reclined in his chair in the study, staring at the unopened e-mail.

Kate and Alexis had gone out after breakfast with Lanie, Morgan and Alaina for bonding/shopping time before the wedding, so the loft was quiet and empty.

Josh Davidson.

Josh.

The man who, just over three months ago, had broken up with Kate over the phone for another woman he'd met. While out of the country. Again.

Rick tried to remind himself that Josh had been a good guy, he really did. But Josh _freaking_ Davidson was e-mailing Kate. Why?

He had yet to actually open the e-mail, too many question stilling his hand; why was Dr. Motorcycle Boy e-mailing Kate? Should he read it? Why shouldn't he? How would Kate react?

Before he could stop himself, he reached out and clicked open the e-mail. He and Alexis had shared a common computer and now had three accounts to include Kate; while he had his laptop for writing and she had her own for case work and personal use and Alexis had her own to herself, the common computer was for everyone.

So.

He'd opened the e-mail. How was he to know that Kate hadn't signed out of her account? He rarely checked these days, nothing of importance was ever on the common computer, aside from pictures and movies, and the like.

The subject title just held a simple greeting, the body of the message was short. Rick's eyes were drawn to the closing line, where a date and address were typed out in bold. Followed by Josh's figurehead at the hospital.

What. The. Fuck.

Rick was confused, and a little angry, but mostly confused; did Kate intend to meet Josh? Was Rick jealous? Did Kate still have feelings for him?

He shook his head; this was ridiculous. Kate did _not_ still have feelings for Josh. It had been months. She hadn't really loved Josh, if at all. She'd never looked back, wasn't a cheater, didn't lie to him about the things that mattered.

And yet.

He was secure enough to admit he was insecure about this. Rick resolved to ask Kate about it when they got back.

* * *

As soon as Kate stepped through the door, she knew something was up. Rick came out to greet them from the study with a strained look on his face that neither Alexis, nor Alaina who had come back with them, seemed to notice.

"Rick?" She asked, closing the door behind the three of them.

Alexis finally noticed the look on her dad's face and frowned a little. "What's wrong dad?"

Rick smiled wider and shook his head. "What? Nothing, nothing's wrong; how was the shopping and the bonding? Buy me anything?"

When Alexis and Kate both just watched him curiously, Alaina answered. "Yeah, tons of shopping, nothing for you though I'm afraid, Rick. What's for dinner?"

Right. Dinner. It was closing in on 4:30. Kate mentally shook her head and ushered the teens further into the loft. "We'll figure something out, why don't you guys go put this away upstairs."

Kate handed over her bags to Alexis and Alaina who carried them all upstairs, skeptical looks on their faces.

"What's going on?" she asked, crossing her arms and leaning a hip against the back of the couch.

"Nothing, I just need to ask you something." Rick felt just a taste of anger and sadness as she stood there like nothing was going on.

"Okay," she said slowly, bracing herself automatically.

"Were you going to meet him?"

Now Kate was confused. "Meet who?"

"Josh."

"Rick, why would I be going to meet Josh? He's not even in New York as far as I know."

"Well, you got an e-mail from him. With a date and time attached. In bold. Why would you hide that from me?" Rick asked seriously.

Kate looked confused and then angry. "You went through my e-mail?"

"You didn't sign out, I didn't check. It wasn't intentional! How long have you been talking to him since you guys broke up?"

Kate gaped at him, wondering where all this was coming from. Rick had never seemed like the overly jealous type before, he was too easy-going; and over Josh? He had been there when they'd broken up, when she'd told Rick, he had held her and if she was honest, that was when she knew for sure she could make a relationship with him work.

This made no sense. She needed to talk to Rick rationally. Ask him what was going on. Focus on what mattered and not get angry, because that would be the road to nowhere.

"How long have I been talking to him? Are you going to start telling me who I can and can't talk to now, Castle?" No. This was supposed to be rational...but he'd read her e-mail! Who did that?

"You don't like it when I talk to Gina or Meredith! Why should this be different?" Rick exclaimed.

"First of all, I don't care when you talk to your ex-wives; one is the mother of your child and the other is your publisher, it'd be hard to avoid them. Second, this is completely different because I trust you! Obviously after all this time you don't trust me."

And that was probably what stung the most. All that time he'd spent getting her to trust him, open up to him, be with him. And he didn't trust her? It almost felt like it was her fault; all the effort he put in to get her to believe in him and she hadn't done the same.

"I trust you just fine, it's Motorcycle Boy I don't trust."

"No, what this sounds like, Castle, is that you don't trust me around him. You think I'm just going to turn around like a switch has been flipped and go back to him. What the hell?"

Rick looked away for a second and silence fell tense between them before he spoke again. "You could have told me. All the things I have to pull from you, Kate; your mother, your feelings, everything. It's a fight to be with you,"

The second he said it he regretted it. Kate inhaled sharply and fought back the stinging in her eyes as tears welled.

"Fine. Obviously something's going on with you. I'm going back out and over to Lanie's. If that's alright with you of course, Esposito might be there," she bit off harshly.

Rick remained standing there as she strode past him and went up the stairs, heels clicking smartly on the floor. He heard music turn off in Alexis' room and heard muffled questions but no answers.

Minutes later she had a small bag in hand and her keys out. "By the way, I hadn't even opened the e-mail. I saw it before we left to go shopping. When you've figured out what the hell is going on in your head, let me know what it said."

And then the door was closed behind her with a soft click.

Well, fuck.

Rick sighed deeply and turned to go back into the study. Their first fight. Well, as a couple it was their first fight. Damn it hurt. He sat down heavily in the chair behind his desk and shook the mouse to brighten the screen.

Josh's e-mail still sat open in the browser. Rick took a deep breath and then read the e-mail carefully.

_Hey Kate,_

_I'm sorry about the way things ended between us a few months ago. Over the phone is the worst way to end a relationship, but I wanted to say thanks for being so understanding. So you. This is the first access we've had to a computer in months, and I hope we can remain friends enough to invite you to the wedding. Yes, wedding. Amanda and I get back in a few weeks and we're getting married; maybe you could bring the writer monkey as your guest._

_It's at Amanda's parent's farm outside the city, and I would love for you to come. **No. 23 Bell Farm Road, Saratoga County 12181. August 1, 2011 at 2pm.**_

_I hope you can make it,_

_Josh_

Dr. Joshua Davidson, M.D.

New York Presbyterian Hospital

Cardiac Surgery

Rick sighed heavily. He'd royally messed this up. And for what? He knew Kate wasn't a cheater, he knew Kate loved him, he knew she was committed to them. He also realized that Kate had been right, she hadn't even opened the e-mail yet.

And, while he was already digging his grave and sleeping in the proverbial doghouse, he clicked on her deleted folder and found the e-mail had been truthful. This must have been the first time Josh had e-mailed her. Kate rarely cleared her e-mail deleted folder, she never remembered.

So why was he so jealous?

Rick scrubbed a hand over his face and thought hard. Josh had almost been it for Kate. He'd stayed instead of going away after they were locked in the freezer. Josh saved lives on a daily basis. He hadn't pushed and prodded and poked the way Rick did.

He was jealous. Plain and simple. He knew _exactly_ how lucky he was to be with Kate, _exactly_ how lucky. And Josh, as much as Rick tried to hate him, was a good man. One Kate could have easily been happy with.

But he now had to focus on two things; one, Kate hadn't been happy with Josh, but was with him and two, she'd chosen Rick. Not Josh. Not Demming. Not Sorenson. Rick.

Rick sighed again and didn't immediately register when a small knock sounded on the doorframe.

"Dad?" Alexis poked her head in, followed by Alaina's darker one.

In the past few months, Alexis and Alaina had grown very close, very fast. At first, Rick had been worried; Alexis was eager to have another girl her age around and had never had a sibling, and he didn't want to think of her getting hurt. He'd been afraid Alexis would get hurt because he'd thought, early on, that Alaina was using Alexis to deal with losing her sister.

Now he could see it was neither of the two and his fears were unfounded. And he was happy at that fact. Alaina had taken to telling stories of hers and Elizabeth's adventures as children and Alexis looked up to Alaina like a friend as well as a sister.

Despite the fact that _technically_, Alaina and Kate would soon be step-sisters, making Alaina, _technically_ Alexis' aunt. But that didn't matter.

"Yeah pumpkin,"

"What just happened?"

"Well, your old man does on occasion lose his mind." Rick stated simply. Alexis and Alaina came into the room now.

"What did you do?" Alaina asked bluntly. They'd all noticed that she and Kate had this in common. And that she'd grown protective of her newfound soon-to-be step-sister.

"Well, I may have been a wee bit jealous," Rick admitted, turning the computer screen a little.

Alexis immediately crossed the floor and leaned against his side to read it while Alaina followed but subtly refused to touch him at all. As the girls read over his shoulders, Rick realized that as much as Alexis could become another sibling, a good friend, and Kate a part of her family, her father was irreplaceable.

"Dad, tell me you didn't freak out about this!" Alexis turned wide eyes on her dad.

"Possibly,"

"Well, you need to go fix it." Alaina said easily.

"How?"

Alaina thought a moment. "Bring some nutella. And apologize a lot. Tell her you were wrong, that you trust her implicitly, love her completely and that you totally fucked up."

Rick winced at the cursing coming from Alaina's mouth, something that had been lacking in his household (excluding his own mind) due to his daughter's saint like status and his mother's questionable manners, but knew she was right.

"Okay. Nutella. Apologies. I was wrong, I trust her, I love her, I fudged up."

"Yes." Alaina agreed, patted his shoulder.

"Sounds good," Alexis agreed, moving away from his side.

"Alright. Let's hope she's not armed."

* * *

There was hope for them yet.

Rick had discovered Jim's watch and Johanna's ring on the bedside table, right where Kate left it in the morning when she showered before work, which meant that she planned on coming back. Trusted him to look out for them.

Had had touched the chain the ring hung on and the face of the watch for luck before grabbing his keys and heading back downstairs and out the door.

And now he stood in front of Lanie's apartment, palms sweaty, staring at the grey door.

Taking a deep breath, he released it slowly and then raised a hand to knock.

When the door swung open, he was faced with one of the only people capable of terrifying him more than Kate, Martha or Alexis.

Lanie Parish.

* * *

remember i told you waaayyy back when that just because kate and josh broke up, didn't mean i was done with him? well. there you go. :P

i'm not sure i'm getting across the relationship dynamics between everyone right, so please feel free to comment on it, whether you thought it was good or if it needs some work, feedback is appreciated, suggestions welcomed!

reviews are LOVE!

questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?


	12. I think this line's mostly filler

sorry, again, for the long wait. this story IS still being written, i swear. the contributing factor to the slowness? work. retail SUCKS. just a small venting moment there. A small filler until Jim and Morgan's wedding!

enjoy-

* * *

"Lanie," Castle greeted carefully, body tense and waiting for the smack she was always promising them all.

Lanie gave him a confused look, one eyebrow raised, and crossed her arms over her stomach.

"Castle," she said back.

"Is Kate here?" He said, looking around Lanie's smaller frame.

In the background he heard a shout, a short scuffle, followed closely by a shout from a man and Kate's yelp. "Stop! I take it back!" followed by her laugh.

"Uh, yeah. What's wrong? You look too guilty." Lanie eyed him suspiciously now and frowned a little.

Castle breathed a little easier and forced a charming smile onto his face. He and Kate may be together, which made Lanie happy, but he wasn't deluding himself into believing he would be on the receiving end of some serious ass kicking should something happen.

"No, nothing, no reason, I guess I just got my wires crossed with Kate. Couldn't get her cell. Can I talk to her?"

Lanie watched him for a moment before stepping aside and letting him into the apartment. "Sure, come on in. We were playing poker. What have you two done to my living room?"

Castle stood frozen next to an equally shocked Lanie. The couch had been pushed back and cushions were strewn over the floor and chairs. Esposito sat leaning up against the crooked couch, watching Kate carefully but with a wide grin.

Kate sat easily in one of the overstuffed chairs, hair slightly mussed and clothes crooked, face neutral except for the slight flush of exertion.

"Nothing, babe, just a small disagreement." Esposito said, not taking his eyes from Kate.

"Uh, more like a settling of a bet." Kate countered, shooting a glare at Esposito.

"I was gone for 8 seconds, how did you bet on anything in that span of time?" Lanie's hands were planted on her hips now. "Like children," she commented under her breath, but Castle could hear the affection in her voice.

"Well, Javi here bet he could finally take me in a grappling lock. I said he couldn't now and wouldn't ever be able to. We tested our theories," Kate said matter-of-factly, but with a warm smile for Esposito.

"And?" Lanie asked in amusement now, leaving Castle in the frame of the living room entry way to straighten up her cushions and her man's shirt.

"I won," Kate said with a grin.

"Of course you did, you're too skinny! Slippery, wiley." Esposito grumbled, pulling himself off the floor.

Kate laughed again before finally acknowledging Castle's presence. "Hi,"

"Hey. Can I talk to you?"

"Go ahead," Kate said easily, leaning back in her chair. She played at nonchalant, but Castle could see the tense line of her shoulders and the clench of her jaw.

"I mean, can I talk to you alone? Please?"

"What'd you do, bro?" Esposito asked from the couch. Castle heard the protective note in it for Kate.

He glanced at Kate and when she didn't seem keen on answering for him or saving him, he heaved a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Kate, can I please talk to you?"

Kate made him sweat for a moment before pulling herself out of the chair and gesturing Castle to follow her out onto the balcony.

When the sliding door was shut and Kate was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and Castle was standing facing her from the other side of the balcony, he spoke.

"I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. I didn't mean any of that. I love you so, so much."

Kate nodded twice and looked away. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"That's it? No wrath-of-Lanie? No death glare or threatening important parts of my anatomy with your gun?"

"Do you want to be in trouble?" Kate asked evenly, casting a look back at him.

"No," Castle backpedaled. "No, no, I was just expecting some maiming from Esposito, some scalpel wielding from Lanie,"

"I didn't tell her what happened,"

"No, I can see that. Why not?"

Kate licked her lips but said nothing, choosing instead to look out over the edge of the balcony.

"It's not a fight to be with you, Kate," Castle said, rightly guessing what was really bugging her.

"It's not a fight, and I trust you completely. I swear. At least, it's not a fight I mind fighting. I love when you challenge me, you know that."

Kate shook her head ad didn't look at him. "Do you remember what I said when I agreed to move in with you?"

Rick thought back hard. "You said a lot of things when you moved in."

"I said that it was going to be hard. Being with me. I told you it would most likely be a constant fight, worse sometimes, because I don't like depending on people or being taken care of and I'm not used to it."

Castle fell silent then. Now he remembered. Well damn.

He sighed heavily as Kate bit her lip and looked out over the city. "I know. I'm sorry. I know you didn't see the e-mail from Josh, who, by the way, I do know is a good enough guy. I trust you. I was just-,"

"Jealous beyond belief and kind of rude to top it off?"

"Yes. Sure. Okay." Castle jumped on the undercurrent of teasing her voice, small as it was, and moved closer to her. "I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions when common sense would have done just fine."

Kate held silent a while longer before sighing and meeting his eyes with a small smile. "Okay."

"Okay? We're good?" Castle moved closer to slide a hand down her arm to hold her fingers.

Kate smiled wider. "Yes, Rick, we're good."

Breath whooshed from his lips and he grinned. "Good. Now, do you want to know what the e-mail said?"

Kate laughed and shook her head. "Sure,"

"We're invited to another wedding."

* * *

questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?


	13. Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Alright people, this took FOREVER to get right. Seriously. It felt like an eternity. And then, just as I finished, I realized that what I had planned for this chapter was where the chapter ended up going. So here we are. Hopefully the next one flows a bit better and I hope some of you are still interested!

Enjoy -

* * *

With Jim and Morgan's wedding in less than a week, their first fight as an official couple was quickly forgotten. Rick bought a new tux for the occasion and coerced Alexis into sharing that Kate's dress was royal blue, to match Morgan's blue and silver theme. They learned the wedding ceremony itself was small, just the bride and groom, the bride's parents, Kate, Rick and Alexis, Alaina and Morgan's sister Helen. Everyone else would show up later for the reception.

The day of the wedding itself, Rick found himself on the other end of the spectrum. Usually, Alexis and Martha were waiting on him to get ready. On occasion Martha would take longer, but mostly he held everyone up. Today was different.

"C'mon ladies! We're going to be late!" Rick called up the stairs of the loft. He, Kate, Alexis and Martha had gotten ready together, the girls clearly taking more time in this instance.

"Jeez, Castle, take a pill; two minutes," came Kate's irritated response. Rick fiddled with the camera in his hands and huffed. Maybe calling up to them every three minutes had been a bad idea, in retrospect.

"Alright Dad, get your camera ready," Alexis called a few (more than two) minutes later. The amusement in her voice told Rick that she knew he had been waiting for too long to see their dresses.

Martha's dress was vibrant and blue, with customary gloves and a scarf and bejeweled shoes. She, of course, looked magnificent and Rick grinned as she came down the stairs.

"Now Mother, not trying to upstage the bride are you?" Rick raised an eyebrow as Martha came to a stop and slid her hand to loop around his forearm.

"Oh my dear, allow me some fun; young Jenny helped me pick this out herself. Wait til you see Alexis,"

"What did you and Kate let her buy?" Rick asked worriedly at the mischievous undertone to Martha's comment. Martha waved away his comment and rolled her eyes dramatically.

"With the amount of sense and maturity between your daughter and the good detective, do you really believe she's going to be wearing something wildly inappropriate?" Martha questioned with a sarcastically raised eyebrow.

"Well, no, but to me, anything that doesn't cover her from neck to knee is inappropriate," he grumbled under breath. Rick heard a new set of heels hitting the stairs and turned to see his daughter come into view.

The dress' metallic silver material made his daughter's skin glow and Rick's jaw drop.

"Pumpkin, you look perfect," Rick said as Alexis finished coming down the stairs.

"You really like it? I think this is one of the only times you haven't seen a dress I've bought," Alexis bit her lip lightly, a habit Rick noticed she picked up from Kate.

"Sweetie, I love it. It's perfect."

"And the colour? I mean, Morgan did say that she wanted her guests to be bright and colourful, not plain and boring."

"Zero chance of that happening with your grandmother in the room, but you look stunning. Both of you."

"Thanks Dad,"

"Alright detective, two down, one to go!" Rick called up the stairs.

"Have you guys seen my necklace?" Kate didn't appear to have heard him and came down the stairs, distracted, with a hand to her neck.

Rick was distracted for a whole other reason. The dress was perfect. It was navy blue, just like Alexis had told him, with a single thin strap over the right shoulder and a thicker drape over the left, embroidery over the shoulder. It came to just over knees and had a belt of sorts cinched around her waist. He drew his eyes down longs legs to her ever-present heels, these silver and strapped.

"Uh," he managed. Alexis nudged him and Martha grinned.

"Castle, my necklace, have you seen it?" Kate stopped in front of the family, pushing a strand of rebellious hair from her eyes and back up into the half-ponytail she and Alexis had given each other.

He mentally shook himself and focused on what the woman before him was saying. "Which necklace are you looking for?"

"The one with my mom's ring on it," Kate answered, already moving off to look around the kitchen island and then the living room.

Rick could see the slight beginnings of panic in her eyes as she searched, could see it in her movements as she moved cushions and paper stacks aside. He went to help her look while Martha made encouraging sounds and went back to look upstairs, Alexis went to the dining room where they'd eaten last night and that morning.

"Where was the last place you had it?"

Kate was pulling open drawers in the little stand next to the couch now. "Last night. I put it on the bedside table last night. Just like I always do. Rick,"

The note of desperation caught his attention and he looked up to see her standing before the couch, a hand pressed to her neck. He knew the ring and the chain were light, anyone else might even forget it was even around their necks, but to Kate, even the slight weight of the chain was something that tied her to her mother and the ring the chain linked through.

"We'll find it,"

Alexis watched the exchange and then lifted another pile of papers, a newspaper from the day before. Under the comic section rested her own necklace, one her dad had given her for graduation. As she touched the chain and the bright red beads, events from the night before came to her.

They made dinner, Kate had arrived home late, watched a movie, read the paper, they'd cleaned up. Alexis had asked a question about Kate's necklace.

"Oh, my _god_!" Alexis exclaimed and ran up the stairs. Rick watched her run up the steps and then looked over at Kate who didn't even seem to notice. She was crossing the living room to his office now and heading inside.

"Pumpkin?" Rick questioned curiously when Alexis came tearing back down the stairs, something clutched in her hand.

"I'm so sorry, I completely forgot! I remember Kate telling me it was her mom's ring last night and how she _always_ wears it and her dad's watch and she keeps it on a chain, the ring not the watch, and she wears it every day and it's part of her routine and who she is. I remember she showed it to me and then we were getting ready this morning and she told me I could wear a pair of her earrings that Lanie gave her, but I couldn't _find_ them and I saw the necklace with the ring on it on the bedside table and I tried it on!"

Rick nearly took a step back under the barrage of words that had just come out of his daughter's mouth, seemingly at once, and placed his hands on her shoulders when she skidded to a stop in front of him, dress swirling around her.

"Whoa, wait, slow down, you put on Kate's necklace?"

Martha was coming back down the stairs now, following all the commotion and watched curiously.

Alexis took a deep breath and nodded, tears welling in her eyes. "Yes, I put it on and I forgot about it because the chain is so light and ring isn't heavy and I had it on until Kate finished my make-up and started doing hers in the bathroom and I was looking for this-" she held up her own necklace that her dad had given her, "and when I couldn't find it, I went to put on another one and I took Kate's off and didn't put it back and I'm so sorry!"

Rick told her to calm down and carefully took Kate's necklace from Alexis' fingers. "Sweetie, it's okay, it was an honest mistake. She'll be fine,"

Alexis shook her head and a tear slipped out. Rick offhandedly noted the waterproof make-up.

"No, this means everything to her. It's her mom's ring and I took it, without asking or telling her and I didn't put it back. She thinks she's lost it, Dad I have to go give it to her!"

Rick pressed a kiss to Alexis' forehead and pulled her into a hug. Alexis gripped his suit jacket and swallowed when he pulled back. "It's okay, I can go give it to her. Kate?" He called Kate's name and she appeared in the doorway to the living room, frowning at the scene before here.

"Yeah? Alexis? What happened?" Kate crossed the room to the pair wrapped around each other and ran her eyes over them in concern.

"Kate, I'm so sorry," Alexis took the necklace back from her dad and held it out to Kate.

Kate's eyes caught the ring and a look of complete relief settled over her features as she reached out and took it carefully, sliding it over her hair and letting it settle against her skin.

"Sorry? For what? Thank you so much for finding it," Kate smiled up at the redhead and fingered the ring now resting against her sternum.

"No, Kate, I didn't find it. I put it on this morning, and I didn't ask you or tell you and I didn't put it back on your nightstand. I'm so, so, sorry. I won't touch it ever again, I promise."

The Castles held their breaths as Kate considered the teenager in front of her, fingers moving to slide the ring along the chain around her neck. To Alexis, it felt like hours, in reality it was all of seven seconds.

Kate's heart stopped wildly beating and she calmed herself down. Her mom's ring was safe, not lost, and was in it's proper place on a chain around her neck again. Alexis looked positively crushed though, and maybe a little frightened.

"Alexis, I know I threaten to shoot your father on an almost daily basis, but you can stop looking like I'm going to pull my gun on you." Kate finally said, pulling her hands from the ring.

"I'm so sorry," Alexis repeated.

Kate sighed a little. "It's okay. I just, I'm not mad. I wish you'd told me, but I promise I'm not mad."

She and Alexis had always had a friendship, more than one of a girl and her father's girlfriend. Kate knew Alexis looked up to her and confided in her and would ask for help, but she had a mother. They both knew that, while Kate had maternal instincts, especially to protect Alexis and take care of her, she wasn't filling a motherly role. So how were they going to handle this?

"I'm not mad." Kate said firmly. "I promise. You remembered, you brought it back and you apologized. I can't ask for anything else than what you did. I'm grateful that you found it. I promise."

Rick watched in awe, he was always in awe of both Kate and his daughter, as Alexis nodded and wiped her tears and Kate pulled her into a hug. He knew Kate didn't feel exactly like a mom to Alexis and he knew that Alexis saw Kate a role model, an older sister, friend, cool aunt, but not a mother. He knew and he understood and he was so grateful for their dynamic relationship right at that moment.

Alexis pulled back and the two shared a smile. "Okay, now I need to fix my blush," the red head laughed.

Kate grinned and shook her head. "Can you grab my clutch and my dad's watch on your way down?"

Alexis hesitated a step and then said "Sure," before continuing up the stairs.

Rick pulled Kate into a hug and felt her cling to him just a little before relaxing and taking a deep breath. "I thought it was gone," she whispered against him.

Martha, who had been standing at the foot of the stairs, decided to make an exit. "Richard, I'm going to check and see if the car has arrived," and she was out the door.

Kate leaned against Rick, arms circling his torso while his rested on her lower back.

"You can tell me if you're actually angry with her."

"I'm not. I swear I'm not, I mean it's Alexis, I don't think it's possible to be mad at her. And she was so sorry, Rick. I just, I thought I lost my mom's ring. It was a scary moment."

"I'm sensing something else here," Rick said quietly back. They listened to Alexis moving around upstairs before Kate finally addressed the statement.

"I've been, worried, that my dad would ask for it. That he'd want it back," Kate said quietly. She curled her face into his neck, mindless of her make-up.

"Why would he ask for it back, Kate, he knows how much it means to you. He wouldn't do that,"

Kate nodded a little but he still felt like she was holding something back.

"You thought he'd ask for it to give to Morgan," Rick finally realized. Kate squeezed him tighter and didn't say anything.

"Kate, your father knows that ring means so much to you. He would never ask you to give that up. Just like he wouldn't try to replace your mom or give Morgan her ring. You know that, right?"

"I know, I think, but I was just afraid of it, okay? I had all these thoughts, you know? Like in the movies where the mom gives her son a ring for his bride and it's her mother's ring or something?"

Rick squeezed her against him.

"And he doesn't know,"

"What?"

"He doesn't know how much the ring means to me. I mean, maybe he does, but I've never told him that I wear it on this necklace or that I wear it every day. He's never seen it. He gave it to me, but he thinks it's in a jewelry box."

"You should tell him. I think he'd appreciate it." Rick said and Kate unfolded himself from his arms.

"Yeah, maybe I will."

"Alright, how's the make-up?" Alexis came down the stairs again and tilted her face for inspection.

"Perfect. Your Grams went down for the car so, shall we join her ladies?" He held out his elbows for the two women to take.

Alexis bypassed her dad and handed Kate her clutch first, and then her dad's watch.

Kate brushed a thumb over the face of the watch before carefully sliding it into the clutch and taking Rick's arm on one side while Alexis did the same on the other.

* * *

The space at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers was beautifully decorated in blues and silvers, for Morgan's theme, and an alter covered with blue roses stood at the end of a silver carpeted runway. There were a few rows of chairs in front of the alter and smaller tables around the outside of the rows.

As they arrived, a few of Morgan and Jim's close friends were already sitting in the middle rows, talking amongst themselves, most with glasses of water or ginger ale. The group noted the absence of a bar.

"Kate!" They all turned at the voice and Alaina came up to them with a smile and a hug for them all.

"Aly you look amazing!" Alexis exclaimed upon catching sight of Alaina in her bridesmaid dress. The heart shaped top and flared bottom and sash across the waist flattered her figure and made her look stunning.

"You guys look great too. Your seats are this way." Alaina led them to their seats in the front row.

Kate sat in the aisle seat with Rick next to her, followed by Alexis and Martha. On the other side of the aisle sat an older couple, who were talking animatedly to each other, and a man and a woman, each with a child on their laps.

"Okay, so you guys are here and behind you are some of Jim's friends from AA and work. Those are my grandparents, Eloise and Steve, and my aunt and uncle, Helen and James. The two kids are Henry and David, their twins. Behind Jim's friends will be Lanie, Javier, Kevin and Jenny and behind my mom's family are more friends. Kate, your dad wanted to talk to you before the ceremony about something important,"

Alaina watched the confusion and slight panic shoot across Kate's face before she squeezed Rick's hand and stood to follow her out of the hall.

"He's in here, my mom's down the hall. I'll see you in a bit," Alaina smiled and went to turn and walk away. Kate let her hand fall to the doorknob but didn't turn the handle just yet.

"Hey, Kate?"

"Yeah?"

"You really do look pretty." Alaina said, coming back to wrap her in a hug.

"You do too. I'll see you out there," and Kate pushed the door open.

What she saw nearly stopped her in her tracks. The sunlight streamed in, lighting up the entire room. Her dad paced in front of a mirror, a piece of paper in his hands, tie hanging undone and tux jacket laid out on the back of a chair. He looked like a man on his wedding day.

Probably like he did before he married her mother...

"Hi dad," she said, knocking lightly on the doorframe.

"Katie," her dad whirled to face her and the smile on his face warmed her heart and made her grin wide too. "Look at you, you look beautiful,"

He pulled her into a hug and Kate went willingly, smiling and squeezing right back.

"You look good to, in a tux no less." she said into her father's shoulder.

"As you can probably tell, I'm a bit..."

"Nervous?"

Jim released her with a chuckle walked a few steps away to place the paper in his hand on the chair with his jacket.

"Yeah, I can't for the life of me remember how to finish this tie," Kate grinned and stepped in front of him and began weaving the material back and forth expertly.

"Alaina said you wanted to talk to me about something important,"

Jim watched his daughter's smiling face as she did up his tie and couldn't get over the sight; his daughter, his little girl, Katie, was a grown woman with a job and house and family. He was getting married and his daughter was going to be there.

His eyes caught the glint against her neck in the sunlight and he frowned a little before he realized what it was.

Kate had asked him about something important but he didn't hear her. His hand lifted and gently moved the hair from her shoulder so he could pull the chain up from behind the material of the neck of her dress.

Kate finished the tie in silence and let her father look at the ring as it hung between them.

She met his eyes and found a few tears there. "Dad,"

"No, it's okay. I just, I just feel the same today as I did when I married Johanna. That's a really good feeling, sweetie, and, I'm not comparing the two, but the same feeling, it's right. You know?"

Kate swallowed thickly and nodded a little. _He won't ask for it. He won't ask for it._

"I didn't know you wore it." Jim said, laying it down so it rested on top of Kate's dress.

She lifted a hand and automatically slid it along the chain gently, back and forth. "Yeah, every day."

They shared a moment together before Jim cleared his throat. "I need to ask you something,"

Kate nodded slowly, "Sure," _He won't ask for it. He won't ask for it. He won't ask for it._

"I wonder if you could do something for me, nothing big, just a little favour. It was actually Morgan's idea, and it's a good one."

"Sure, what is it?" Kate asked cautiously.

Jim smiled widely.

* * *

"Dad, where's Kate? The music's starting," Alexis whispered over to her dad from across the seat.

Rick looked around in confusion and worry, "I don't know pumpkin, she's here somewhere. Maybe helping her dad or Morgan, I'm sure it's fine."

"But dad!" Alexis pointed over their shoulders where they could see the tips of Alaina's bridesmaid bouquet, waiting to enter before her mother.

"I'll see if I can find her," Rick was worried. He turned in his seat and just caught sight of Lanie looking around for Kate too. Maybe he'd been wrong and Jim had asked for the ring and Kate was upset?

Just as he pushed up out of his seat, the wedding processional music began and he was forced to sit or be heading the wrong way down the aisle.

So Rick sat and turned to watch as the ceremony started. And then proceeded to grin so widely he thought his face would split. Beside him, he heard Alexis go 'aww'.

Kate Beckett was walking her father down the aisle. She held his elbow with a proud smile, a small bouquet of blue roses wrapped in silver ribbon in her slightly shaking hands and her mother's ring around her neck for all to see.

Jim looked equally as proud and joyful as he walked with a straight back and wide grin, squeezing his daughter's hand every now and then. When they reached the alter and the minister, Kate kissed her father on the cheek and Jim pulled her into a hug. But she didn't come back to her seat like Rick expected her to and instead stood off the side, where a best man should be.

Next came Alaina in her beautiful dress with her own bouquet of flowers and then there was Morgan. There was a collective murmur of awe from the assembled quests as she came down the aisle in her gorgeous dress with a beautiful bouquet of white roses.

Her dress was just off white, with the same heart shaped top as Alaina's dress, with a simple skirt and a small sash around her waist. The hem brushed the floor as she walked, but the few glimpses of her feet showed silver sandals. Attached to the sides of the heart-shaped top were lace shoulder-sleeves that gave off an old-fashioned look, while still being modern.

The veil was lace and silver trimmed and her hair hung down in soft waves.

When she and Jim met at the alter, the guests were already reaching for tissue.

Kate and Rick's eyes met as the ceremony proceeded and he smiled at her in a way that made her heart skip a beat and speed up at the same time, a flutter in her stomach.

Somehow she knew that it was no longer a question of **if** Castle proposed, but **when** he would.

* * *

Whew, all out in one chapter! I like this part a whole lot, I really do, so I'd love to read your thoughts on it.

For those who are curious, I do have pics of the dresses described, because I'm horrible at describing them. just ask in your reviews and hopefully i can reply with the link attached :)

Questions, comments, thoughts, concerns?

Reviews are love!


	14. the End  the Beginning

alright guys, the final chapter! this felt like a good place to leave it. originally, I planned to continue with Castle and Beckett going to Josh and Amanda's wedding and then planning their own, but it would have dragged out the story and changed what it was really about, which was the case and Morgan.

anyway, the songs used in this chapter are NOT mine, but they are lovely.

enjoy -

* * *

The reception was just starting when Kate finally found Rick again. The receiving line had been short in reality, but long to her; most of the guests she didn't know, and the few she did know were still relative strangers.

"Hey, look at you," Rick said when she was walking towards him across the dance floor. Morgan and Jim were sitting at the small head table with Alaina and Morgan's parents, Eloise and Steve.

"Hey," Kate greeted back, folding easily into Rick's open arms. "So?"

"You were perfect. Absolutely amazing. Best, best man-woman ever." Rick squeezed her before letting her go as she chuckled.

Just as they sat down, the DJ for the rest of the evening asked for all the guests to find their seats.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, I present to you for the first time as husband and wife, to each other," the DJ stressed, the assembled guests chuckling a little, "Mr. and Mrs. James Beckett."

Morgan and Jim stood from their seat and locked fingers as they moved to the middle of the dance floor.

The lights in the small space dimmed so only the late afternoon sunlight streamed in and lit up the couple. Jim held out a hand to Morgan, who took it with a wide smile, one mirroring his own.

As the music started, Kate felt her her eyes burn and a lump form in her throat. The song was beautiful, and her father and Morgan looked so happy. Any reservations she had lingering in the back of her mind evaporated as a tear slid down her cheek.

"Hey, you okay?" Rick asked, leaning over to swipe the tear from her skin.

Kate smiled easily and nodded, not taking her shining eyes off her father. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine,"

Rick caught her fingers as the couple started to sway around the dance floor.

_Wise men say, only fools rush in,_

_But I can't help falling in love with you_

_Shall I stay, would it be a sin,_

_If I can't help, falling in love with you_

Kate squeezed his hand as Elvis crooned and she swayed and smiled even without realizing it as her father leaned over and said something quietly to Morgan, who grinned and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

As the song came to a close and the guests applauded, the DJ lowered the mic so he could speak into it.

"At this time, the bride would like to share a special dance with her father,"

Morgan turned back to the head table and Jim squeezed her hand before shaking hands with Steve Cahill, who clapped Jim on the shoulder.

Steven Cahill was tall and healthy, with a thick head of white hair and laugh lines to show for his good life. He brought his daughter into a hug before the music started and Jim retook his seat next to Alaina.

_Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high_

_There's a land that I heard of,_

_Once in a lullaby._

Rick curled his free hand around Alexis' as it snaked up and linked their fingers together.

"I love you dad," she said quietly to him, resting her chin gently on his shoulder as they watched Morgan and her father move slowly around the floor, both with soft smiles on their faces.

"I love you too, pumpkin," he replied.

Jim stood up then and offered a hand to Eloise, who grinned and took it, and lead her onto the dance floor now as well. At the table alone, Alaina leaned her cheek on her hand and watched with a smile.

"You know, I hope I remember I want this song for our dance at my wedding," Alexis whispered dreamily back to him.

Rick froze in his seat and his brain tripped over the image. "Let's not discuss your marriage for a long, long time. Okay, sweetie?"

Alexis just looked up at him through her lashes and chuckled.

_If happy little bluebirds fly,_

_Beyond the rainbow,_

_Why, oh why, can't I?_

The song came to a close and the DJ lowered the mic once more.

"And finally, Morgan and Jim have requested a special song."

The music started up again and Jim crossed the floor to where Kate sat with Rick, Alexis and Martha with his hand held out to her and a crooked smile on his face.

Kate chuckled and untangled her hand from Rick's, fitting it into her father's palm. Across the floor at the head table, Morgan was pulling Alaina up and smoothing a hand over her cheek.

"Come on, Katie,"

The four met in the middle of the floor and twirled together to the slightly faster beat.

_We're young enough to say,_

_Oh this has gotta be the good life,_

_This has gotta be the good life_

_This could really be a good life, good life._

Rick watched Kate twirl out of her father's arms and then back in, one hand resting easily on his shoulder and the other folded in his own, while his free arm wrapped around her back. They both had wide grins as they stepped on each other's feet and Kate shook her head.

Morgan and Alaina fared better and linked arms, dancing easily around Jim and Kate. The guests clapped to the beat and Rick found himself smiling wider and wider.

_Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out_

_Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now_

_We are God of stories but please tell me_

_What there is to complain about?_

"Morgan and Jim would like to now invite everyone to join them and their daughters on the dance floor,"

A Lifehouse song picked up and Rick immediately stood and held out hands to Alexis and Martha, both accepting his hands.

_And now I'm calling, calling out your name_

_Even if I lose the game, I'm all in_

_I'm all in tonight, yeah I'm all in, I'm all in for life_

* * *

After dinner, the dancing picked up with zest. People crammed the dance floor and everyone looked like they were having a great time.

Jim and Morgan were enjoying attempting the cha-cha slide with Alexis leading them on, Martha was having a seemingly hilarious conversation with Lanie and something (though she kept gesturing at the spectacle that was Ryan and Esposito doing a seamless cha-cha slide) and Eloise and Steve were talking with Jenny.

Kate was watching Rick expertly following along with Alexis with a smile when she noticed the mostly empty head table.

Alaina sat on her own, idly stirring her glass of coke with her spoon. Kate stood and made her way around the dance floor to her new step-sister.

"Hey, not enjoying the party?"

Alaina smiled a little and sighed, stirred the coke some more.

"No, I am. I just, I wish Lizzie could have been here, that's all." Alaina took the spoon out of the coke and set it down. "She hated fizzy coke. Had to be flat. She used to stir all the bubbles out."

Kate nodded and waited a moment before speaking. "My mom used to pick apart her oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies."

Alaina pulled a face and smiled a little. "Why?"

Kate grinned. "She picked out all the raisins, ate the cookie, then finished the raisins last."

They shared a chuckle and then fell into comfortable silence. "Do you miss her a lot?"

Kate thought about it and nodded quickly. "Everyday. But it gets better."

Alaina nodded slowly before looking over at Kate. "Is that her ring?" she pointed at Kate's chest, where her mother's ring still sat over the material.

"Yeah, her wedding ring. I wear it everyday. It reminds me of her, keeps her close."

Alaina held up her wrist after a moment of hesitation. A thin twist of chain with beads and charms woven into it was wrapped around her wrist. "This was hers. She wore it everywhere. My dad gave it to her on our birthday. I got the matching necklace and she chose the bracelet."

"It's beautiful."

"You know, she would have liked you. And Rick and Alexis."

"I'm sure we would have liked her too,"

They sat in companionable silence for a short while until the song changed again. "Okay. I've decided this is depressing. Dance?" Alaina said, turning to Kate.

"Let's go," Kate grinned.

* * *

Hours later, the party coming to a close and the clock closing in on 2:30am, Rick glanced over at his daughter to see Alexis asleep. Her head was pillowed on her arms and her untouched glass of champagne rested just out of reach. Even Kate hadn't been able to persuade her to take a celebratory sip.

Martha was sharing a dance with Jim while Alaina and Kate danced together and Morgan talked to some of the lingering guests. The music changed to a slower song and Alaina went to find her mother, Morgan headed to the service window to get some water with Jim and Kate headed over to Rick.

She held out her hand to him and Rick couldn't resist her smile and her slightly flushed cheeks. The lack of bar hadn't meant a lack of alcohol, just the absence of temptation.

"You look happy," Rick said to her as they reached the middle of the dance floor. There was only one other couple, an elderly pair, swaying off to one side to keep them company.

"I think I really am. You know, I didn't think I'd ever get over my dad dating, and then meeting her and Alaina and then Elizabeth and now they're married, but I'm actually happy," Kate said in a rush, grinning up at him.

"I think it's the glass of champagne you finished a little while ago making you this happy," Rick chuckled and pulled her closer.

_Find me here, and speak to me_

_I want to feel you, I need to hear you_

_You are the light, that's leading me_

_To the place, where I find peace, again_

"I think it's you," Kate said in response, her voice serious and even.

Rick smiled warmly down at her and pulled her against him, feeling warmth seep through him when she rested her forehead against his neck. She released a deep breath and sunk into his embrace and he held her tighter with ease.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair, following the sentiment with a kiss. She turned her face up to his skin and he felt her smile.

_You are the strength, that keeps me walking_

_You are the hope, that keeps me trusting_

_You are the lift, to my soul_

_You are my purpose, you're everything_

Kate's hands moved slowly to wrap around Rick's torso, under his suit jacket and she sighed happily again. Rick's slid around her until he could feel the skin of her back and shoulders, caressing in slow circles.

He heard her yawn and slowed their steps until they swayed easily back and forth.

"I love you too," she replied a few moment later as the music washed over them.

_And how can I stand here with you_

_And not be moved by you?_

_Would you tell me, how could it be, any better than this?_

Rick felt Kate stagger a little in her heels and stopped them for a moment before helping her out of the shoes and moved them away with his foot. Kate smiled tiredly up at him and he pulled her back towards him, easing her up on his toes.

Kate released a breath as she settled on his feet and they started swaying again.

"Love the sparkles," Rick lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered, leaving his cheek pressed against hers. Her toes were painted a metallic silver with sparkled gloss.

"Thought you'd like that," she whispered back.

Rick could see Jim and Morgan, together now, sitting close at their table, talking and smiling together. The thought jolted through him so suddenly and fiercely that he nearly lost his balance.

He wanted this with Kate. He'd joked about, to their friends, to his mother and daughter, to Kate herself; but this wasn't a joke. It wasn't a matter of if he proposed to her anymore, but when.

"Hey," he nudged her a little, kissed her ear lobe.

Kate yawned again and looked up at him. "What?"

"I wanna marry you," he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers. At this close proximity, Rick could feel her sharp intake of breath, the chuckle that slipped out on the release of that breath. Her mouth turned up in a smile and her eyes closed gently.

"Is that right," a statement, not a question. Bodies still swaying.

Rick leaned across the few millimetres seperating their mouths and pressed a kiss to her lips, one she responded to gently.

"I want to marry you, Katherine Beckett,"

Kate kissed him slowly before pulling back, but keeping their foreheads touching gently.

"I want to marry you, Richard Castle,"

"Really?"

Kate chuckled and pressed her face into his neck again, inhaling his cologne, felt him do the same.

"Really," she released on a breath against his skin. It terrified her, the thought of getting married, of committing at that level; but this was Rick. That one thought made her ready more than anything else.

_'Cause you're all I want,_

_You're all I need,_

_You're everything, everything_

_You're all I want, you're all I need,_

_You're everything, everything_

The music slowed and Rick held Kate close until the song's final notes played and she sighed deeply.

"Tired," she mumbled quietly.

Rick grinned into her hair and pulled back. "It's late,"

"Or early," she countered sleepily.

Rick lead her off the floor, heels dangling from her fingers, and back over to their table. Martha was rousing Alexis and the four said their goodbyes and congratulations to Morgan and Jim.

* * *

By the time they reached home, it was just after 3am and Martha offered to help get Alexis into bed while Rick and Kate changed.

Martha lead the younger red head up the stairs carefully and helped her out of her dress and into pajamas, washed off the make-up with a cloth and tucked her in. She was met by Rick in the door on his way in the doorway to say goodnight.

When Rick returned to his and Kate's room, the detective was curled up in his large green lantern t-shirt, dress in a pile on the floor next to her shoes, facing the door. She was asleep.

His heart melted.

"Those are two specials girls you got there, kiddo," Martha said from over his shoulder.

Rick grinned. "Don't I know it."

"Here," Martha handed him what looked to be a damp wipe. "For her make-up. This way you don't have to wake her up," she winked at him and moved off down the hallway to get ready for bed herself.

Rick held the cloth between his fingers and crossed the room to kneel in front of Kate. As he passed it over her skin gently, her now make-up-less eyes fluttered open. "What're you doin'?"

He pulled the pins from her hair carefully and untied the ponytail holding half of her hair back, smoothed it away from her face. "Taking off your make-up."

"Feels nice," her eyes closed again.

He smiled and finished the task before tossing it in the trash and pulling on his own pajamas.

As he settled in behind her, she rolled over so she could face him. "Were you serious?"

"About what?"

"What you said before, marrying me,"

Rick pulled her close to him until one of her legs hooked over his and her head came up just under her chin. "Yes."

"Good." she whispered.

"Good?"

"Yes."

Rick held his breath for a moment. "Wait, yes?"

Kate chuckled and snuggled in closer to get comfortable. "Just go to sleep, Castle,"

His mind was already running wild, picturing glittering rings and Kate in a white dress.

* * *

and there you have it. good place for a sequel? perhaps...I do have another story in the making, but it's slightly darker, so I may leave it as its own story and not a follow up to this one.

the songs were:

Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling in Love with You

Judy Garland - Somewhere Over the Rainbow (her version from the Wizard of Oz)

OneRepublic - Good Life

Lifehouse - All In

- Everything

anyway, thanks SO MUCH for all the support and reviews and alerts! they mean so much to me and i really appreciated each and every one of them.

:)


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